The 25th of July 2017 will be the final date for the submission of entries for the Fairway National Literary Awards (FNLA) 2017. Running for the third consecutive year, this competition seeks to recognize and reward exceptional talent in creative writing in Sri Lanka in the Sinhala, Tamil and English languages. All novels published in Sri Lanka between 1st June 2016 and 31st May 2017 in any genre will be eligible for these awards.
The Fairway National Literary Awards were set up in 2015 in conjunction with Fairway Holdings assuming the role of title sponsor of the internationally acclaimed Fairway Galle Literary Festival. The chief guest at last year’s award ceremony, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe commended Fairway Holdings for having taken the initiative to organize and fund the Fairway National Literary Awards and stated, “Our endeavor is to ensure that the literary talent in this country is brought out to the world. That is the target we have. We hope more of the private sector will be involved in sponsoring literary activities in this country”.
At the Fairway National Literary Awards 2016 ceremony, Theena Kumaragurunathan’s novel First Utterance was announced as the chosen winner in the English Language category and Tennyson Perera’s novel Maha Ravana secured first place in the Sinhala category. Panjam Pilaikka Vantha by M. Sivalingam was declared the winner in the Tamil language category. In recognition of the effort and contribution of publishers who play a pivotal role in the creative process the publishers of the winning titles were also given awards for the first time at this ceremony.
Submissions for this year’s competition are being accepted from 5th June 2017 to 25th July 2017 at the Fairway National Literary Awards Secretariat, “The Fairways”, 100, Buthgamuwa Road, Rajagiriya. (Telephone: 0117586586 / 0774462285). A panel of judges will review all the entries and announce the shortlists for all three language categories by the second week of September 2017. All shortlisted authors will be awarded Rs. 100,000 each and the winners of the Fairway National Literary Awards 2016 in all three languages will receive Rs. 500,000 each. The grand Fairway National Literary Awards 2017 ceremony will be held in Galle during the Fairway Galle Literary Festival in January 2018.
The main objective of these awards is to provide pathways for talented local writers to achieve national level significance and showcase their creative work to a countrywide audience. The fact that the awards ceremony is held concurrently with the Fairway Galle Literary Festival, which draws a significant number of foreign literary enthusiasts, provides the writers with the additional benefit of being able to present their work to an international audience. It is hoped that these awards will promote the unearthing of new talent during forthcoming years and spur on many young aspiring writers to bring forth outstanding creative work.
Fairway Holdings wishes all contenders the best of luck and assures them that all entries would be considered purely on merit with the panel of erudite judges ultimately selecting the best works that are worthy of being bestowed the Fairway National Literary Awards 2017.