General Rules

Entries will be judged by an independent panel of judges appointed by the Trustees.

The judges shall not be obliged to name a winner if they are of the opinion that none of the entries submitted merits the prize.

A writer shall be a Sri Lankan citizen aged 16 and over, and resident in Sri Lanka. A writer not resident in Sri Lanka at the time of submitting an application, shall give full particulars regarding residence abroad to include information with documents in support on total period out of Sri Lanka and purpose etc., with the right of the Trustees to call for further information and documents, if deemed necessary at their discretion. The eligibility of an applicant under this criterion shall be assessed and determined by the Trustees based on the objective and mandate of the Gratiaen Trust and shall be final and conclusive.

Entries may include works published for the first time in the relevant year or unpublished works ready for publication at the time of entry. For this purpose, “publication” refers to works printed and available for sale to the public. In the case of ebooks, “publication” refers to work published online. The date of first publication should be the date given in the printed book. In the case of play scripts, if there was a production prior to submission, the date of the first production will be taken as the date of publication (with proof). In the case of ebooks, the online publication date would be considered as the first publication date.

Entries submitted for the Prize should be original works, should be of reasonable length and should not have been submitted earlier for the Prize. Books submitted earlier for the prize cannot be re-submitted. In the case of manuscripts, re-submission is possible but only after significant revision, evidence of which should be attached to the Entry form with the descriptions of change together with the earlier manuscript. Entries being re-submitted on the basis of “significant revisions” shall be accepted at the discretion of the Trustees having evaluated the revisions and being satisfied that the entry may be deemed “new”.

If the entry is an unpublished work, but if part of it has been published previously, such published work should not exceed more than one quarter of the total contents of the entry. This condition will not apply to poems or short stories published in periodicals or newspapers.

The author of the prize-winning manuscript must publish or sign a contract for publication of the winning work within two (02) years of the award.

An author may submit entries under a pseudonym. In this event, the entry form should include the name of the author as given in his/her National Identity Card or passport page. The Trust will disclose the actual name of the author to the judges and the general public at the main award event once the judging process has ended, and only if she/he is shortlisted for, or won the award. Where a published work is submitted, it should be submitted under the same name as appears in the publication.