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Michael Ondaatje received his BA from the University of Toronto and MA from Queens University, Ontario. He taught at the University of Western Ontario, York University and Glendon College. Although Ondaatje’s is best known as a novelist his work encompasses autobiography, poetry, and film. He has published 13 books of poetry and won two awards. In 1980 he was awarded the Canada-Australia prize and in 1992 he was presented with the Booker McConnell Prize for his novel The English Patient. He is presently a member of the Department of English at Glendon College, and York University in Toronto, Ontario, a position he has held since 1971. |
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Senath Walter Perera obtained his MA and PhD from the University of New Brunswick, Canada and is currently Professor in English at the University of Peradeniya. His special focus is on Sri Lankan, Expatriate, and Postcolonial Literature. Perera is the recipient of several Commonwealth and Fulbright awards and has served as Chair of the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia). He was an Articles Editor for Postcolonial Text and is the Bibliography Representative in Sri Lanka for The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. He also edits The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities. |
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| Michael Fredrick Sproule is an Attorney-at-Law; a Law Graduate from Oxford University, Barrister and Member of the Inner Temple. He is the Senior Partner of
D. L. & F. De Saram, which was founded by his great, grandfather in 1901. The firm serves as lawyers to the Gratiaen Trust. |
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Godfrey Gunatilleke graduated in English Literature with First Class Honours from the University of Ceylon. He was conferred with a D.Litt from the University of Colombo in 1966 and was a recipient of the Sarvodaya Award in 1999 and the Sahabdeen Award in 2005. He has received several national and international awards including the Deshmanaya for distinguished public service. The author of several books, articles and publications on development issues, his involvement in the literary field includes short stories such as “The Garden”, “Thief in the Night” and literary critical articles “Language without Metaphor”. Gunatilleke presently serves as Chairman Emeritus and Senior Advisor of the Marga Institute (Centre of Development Studies, Sri Lanka) |
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Richard Boyle British-born Richard Boyle arrived in Sri Lanka as a film-maker and scripted and produced the movies East of Elephant Rock in 1976 and Rampage in 1977. He has also scripted documentaries for UN agencies and NGOs. He writes historical essays on Sri Lanka for local and overseas publications and is a contributing editor of Himal Southasia magazine. In 2000, he began to assist the Oxford English Dictionary in the revision of words of Sri Lankan origin, which resulted in the glossary Knox’s Words published in 2004. In 2008 he published Sindbad in Serendib: Strange Tales and Curious Aspects of Sri Lanka. |
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Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu received his undergraduate degree and doctorate in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is the founder Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), an independent public policy institute. He has presented papers at international conferences on security and democracy in Sri Lanka and the developing world, and is quoted widely in the local and international media on contemporary Sri Lankan politics. |
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Neloufer de Mel obtained her Ph.D from the University of Kent at Canterbury, U.K., and is Professor in English at the Dept. of English, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Published widely in English, Gender, and Cultural Studies, she is the author of Militarizing Sri Lanka: Popular Culture, Memory and Narrative in the Armed Conflict (2007), Women and the Nation’s Narrative: Gender and Nationalism in 20th Century Sri Lanka (2001), and the co-editor of many volumes including on women’s writing in Sri Lanka, and Sri Lankan Poetry in English. She has been a fellow at Yale University (2009 & 2006), the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University (2004), and the Women’s Research Center at Rutgers University (1998). She has also served on many juries at film and theatre festivals, and was on the jury for the Commonwealth Writer’s Award (Euro-Asia) in 2008 and the Gratiaen Award in 1996. |
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Peter Bluck is married to Michael Ondaatje's niece, thus he is now 'running in the family'. He is CEO of Actionlanka.com (Pvt) Ltd. Sri Lanka, and Pioneer Adventure Tours Pvt Ltd. India. He has assisted the Sri Lankan Tourist Board and promotes all aspects of Sri Lankan culture. |
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Past Chairpersons |
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Henry Alfred Ian Goonetileke
Chairperson 1993 - 1996
Henry Alfred Ian Goonetileke intimate friendship with Michael Ondaatje resulted in him being the First Chairman of the newly formed Gratiaen Trust, to which he contributed significantly. He strove throughout his life to reconcile the best of the West with the finest of the East. Ian Goonetileke secured a Post Graduate Diploma in Librarianship in 1958 winning the John Duncan Cowley Prize for the best thesis. In 1966 he received his FLA with distinction. Gopal Gandhi the grandson of the Mahama referred to him as a “shard of unfired clay”. Goonetileke was considered one of the finest 20th century Sri Lanka’s intellectuals and one of the most productive members of the academic community of the time. |
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Godfrey Gunatilleke
Chairperson 1997- 2007
Godfrey Gunatilleke graduated in English (1st Class Hons) from the University of Ceylon, 1948. He entered the Ceylon Civil Service and served in senior positions in the Ministries of Lands Industry and Planning and took early retirement in 1972 to establish and head the Marga Institute. He was consultant to the ILO UNCTAD, UNU, WHO and member of the Board of Trustees of the International Food Policy Research Institute. He is the recipient of several International and national awards including the Eisenhower Fellowship USA; the Health for All medal awarded by the WHO; the "Deshamanya" award for distinguished public service and D.Litt conferred by the University of Colombo in 1996. Has authored several books articles and publications on development issues. His involvement in the literary field includes the publication of the literary critical journal Harvest (1945) the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, short stories (“The Garden”, “Thief in the Night”) and literary critical articles (“Language without Metaphor”).Godfrey Gunatilleke is at present Chairman Emeritus and Senior Advisor of the Marga Institute. |
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Tissa A. Jayatilaka
Chairperson 2007 - 2009
Tissa Jayatilaka has Masters in Public Administration from Wake Forest University, North Carolina, Master of Arts in English from Smith College, Massachusetts and a Post-graduate Diploma in American Studies. He was been awarded scholarships to Cambridge University and other universities in the States. He is presently the Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission. Jayatilaka is the author of publications, as well as involved in translations, editing of journals, collections of essays. |
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Senath Walter Perera
Chairperson 2010 -
Senath Walter Perera obtained his MA and PhD from the University of New Brunswick, Canada and is currently Professor in English at the University of Peradeniya. His special focus is on Sri Lankan, Expatriate, and Postcolonial Literature. Perera is the recipient of several Commonwealth and Fulbright awards and has served as Chair of the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia). He was an Articles Editor for Postcolonial Text and is the Bibliography Representative in Sri Lanka for The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. He also edits The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities. |
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