Godage National Literary Awards

S Godage and Brothers (Pvt) Ltd have made awards to the authors of the best of their publications in the three languages and in all genres of literature, annually, and unbroken for the last 22 years. Yes, very extensive and all encompassing and the gifting generous: a symbolic plaque, a certificate and gift of money donated by Deshabandu Sirisumana Godage and his wife, Nanda Godage. This year they were handed to winning authors by the two of them and, as called for, by each of the three Life Time Achievers and Keynote Speaker.

This recognition of local writers in all three languages and in poetry, drama, short stories, and translations is massive, but Mr Godage initiated this recognition of our writers more than two decades ago and has made the awards even during our civil war and now in the time of Covid 19 restrictions. The very well designed invitation in the three languages specifically mentioned that wearing masks at the event on Thursday 10 September from 3.00 to 5.00 pm was mandatory. The Sri Lanka Foundation Institute auditorium was full with invitees and guests. The programme extended one hour beyond the scheduled time. Is it that announcements in Sinhala and Tamil take longer or some of our speakers exceed the time given them when a mike is in hand?

The ceremony started on time with the lighting of the oil lamp. The event was introduced by the compere and a translation given in Tamil. Noted was that unlike the State Literary Awards where the government or the ministry concerned spent the money, here it was Deshabandu Godage who funded the awards and the event too. Also highlighted was the fact that Sinhala, Tamil and English publications were recognized equally.

The keynote address was then delivered by Prof. Kulathilaka Kumarasinghe, a distinguished intellectual. His address was in Sinhala, with a synopsis given in Tamil; and a printed copy placed on each chair for the audience. His topic was literary criticism and critics. He referred in detail to T S Eliot and F R Leavis.

Three prolific writers of academic standing were recognized for their life time contribution to the literary milieu of Sri Lanka, again in the three languages principally. They were Prof Sunanda Mahendra, Prof Chandrasiri Palliyaguru and S Muththumeeran. Citations were read about them in English, Sinhala and Tamil respectively. The comprehensive booklet given to all present, contains details of each of them.

As each winner was presented his/her award, they were accommodated on stage with Mr and Mrs Godage, Prof Kumarasinghe and the three Life Time Achievers. Each category of literature was prefaced with a synopsis of the judges’ comments and shortlisted three books were also given short prefaces in the language appropriate with a longer comment on the winning book. As mentioned, the genres of literature in the three languages that were considered for awards were poetry, drama, short stories and novels. Translations were included in the two national languages. The speaker on the English awards requested that Mr Godage recognizes translations from English to a national language and vice versa.

I write here only of the English awards as I expect the Sinhala and Tamil press will carry articles on those awards and those who won them.

Shortlisting and awards for English Literature publications of 2019 were as follows: Poetry: ten entries considered, standard very high. Three shortlisted were ‘Fleeting moments’ by Nisansala Dharmasena Bertholameuz; ‘Me in my saree by Mandulec Mendis; and My love guru’ by Kaman’ Jayasekera. The last named was the winner.

Only three short story entries were received and none were of award winning standard.

The three short listed novels from 14 entries were: ‘An untold story’ by Kamala Wijeratne; ‘Lakshmi’s story’ by Nanda Pethiyagoda and ‘Youthful escapades’ by Upali Mahaliyana. The award went to well known author and poet Kamala Wijeratne.

The generous award giver

I am certain most local writers know Deshabandu Sirisumana Godage and many are grateful to him for accepting their work for publication. I am one of them. I went to him after having two books published by others. Mr Godage has been extremely gracious in accepting my manuscripts and publishing them, most with hard covers. He has his method to help writers.

Publishing is becoming more and more arduous due to strict selection by one or two publishers; costing much with others; and there being a dearth of approachable publishing houses too. One massive difficultly faced by writers in English is the rejection of manuscripts with the statement, “English books don’t sell.” The commentator on the awards for English writing at the event said there seems to be a dearth in English writing and publication in Sri Lanka. He said there was an upswing in the 1960s and decline thereafter. I beg to differ about authorship. There is much writing, especially since the inauguration of the Gratiaen Awards and later the Fairway Galle Literary Festival Awards. Difficulty in getting even a literary book of high standard published is the problem due to English readership in our country being small, if not miniscule. With the current promotion of English in schools, it is hoped this changes.

Mr. Godage is amiable, extremely polite, soft spoken and a practicing Buddhist. He invariably gifts me his latest book on Buddhism when I see him in his office on the second floor of the Godage Brothers bookshop in Maradana. He is a self-made man having started his publishing career as a bookbinder. He later evolved to the book trade. Today he is well known and publishes books of all genres in Sinhala, Tamil and English, a feat in itself. He has continuously won State Literary Awards and from the FGLF when one of his published novels in English won the award in 2016. He has been in business for near four decades, and is the publisher with the highest number of publications. “Publishers were a disorganized lot in the mid-1970s. Godage secured the attention of the trade by publishing G B Senanayake’s books.”

I strongly feel that the ‘wind beneath his wings’ is of prime importance in this married partnership and business venture. Mrs Nanda Godage has a stronger personality and I suspect a keener business sense. She knows how generous her husband is with his time, acceptance of manuscripts, giving assistance, maybe financial help too. She has indicated people take advantage of his kindness; which is believable. She is in the bookshop daily; elegantly dressed in sari, and easily approachable.

We fervently wish this couple the best in life and success in their book trade where they help very much both the novice and well known writer.