Fairway National Literary Awards shortlist out soon
View(s):The shortlist for the Fairway National Literary Awards 2017 will be announced on August 31 at the JAIC Hilton.
Launched in 2015 to encourage, recognise and reward creative writing in Sri Lanka by offering emerging authors the opportunity to reach a wider reading audience, the FNLA offers a rich purse. The winner in each of the three language categories receives a cash prize of Rs. 500,000 while the five shortlisted authors in each language category will receive Rs. 100,000 each.
In 2015, the joint winners in the English language category were It’s not in the stars by Rizvina Morseth-de Alwis and Rails Run Parallel by Ayathurai Santhan, while the award for the Sinhala language category went to Mahasam by Sepali Mayadunne. The Tamil language prize was not awarded.
Magic realism and fantastical themes dominated the 2016 awards. Veteran writer Tennyson Perera won the Sinhala language category with his novel Maha Ravana. Theena Kumaragurunathan who made his debut with the sci-fi dystopian novella First Utterance won the English language category while in the Tamil language category M. Sivalingam was the winner with Pancham Pilaika Wantha Seemai.