Sammani Perera, instructor of English, won her second Sony Electronics鈥� Alpha Female Plus grant for her photograph, 鈥淭hey Sing You to Sleep.鈥� The grant program is a weekly themed photography and videography contest hosted by The Alpha Female+ Community, a subsidiary of Sony Electronics.

鈥淭hey Sing You to Sleep鈥� captures the Milky Way over her tent on the top of Hunts Mesa of Monument Valley. Describing the photo, she wrote, 鈥�23 days on the road鈥攎ore than 5000 miles across 14 states鈥攁nd this is my favorite night of all. Not only because it didn鈥檛 feel real to finally see Monument Valley from the top of
Hunts Mesa, but also because the magic of this place kept me from failing at another Milky Way shoot. In the Southwest, nights are enchanted.鈥�

The photo won the grant under the theme of 鈥淪ummer Vibes,鈥� judged for relevance to theme, creativity/storytelling within the photo/video, technical mastery of the photo/video, and photo/video caption/written story. She won the same grant in 2025 for her photo 鈥淪wish of a Magic Wand鈥� under the theme of 鈥淕olden Hour鈥� and this photo made her the winner of the landscape category at the 2026 Sony Alpha Female+ Creator of the Year program.

While Perera teaches in the Department of English during the semester, she is a Fine Arts travel and landscape photographer during school breaks. Her photography focuses on public lands of the USA, a journey that the Olympic National Park in Washington started for her in 2017. Her photos have been featured by the Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon Conservancy, Arizona
Highways, Visit West Virginia and PhotoPills.

Associate Professor of English Dinidu Karunanayake served on the , the flagship literary prize for Anglophone writing in Sri Lanka. Each year, the three-person jury consists of a prominent creative writer, a literary scholar and an informed reader. Karunanayake served as the literary scholar of this year鈥檚 panel that was chaired by Sri Lankan American author V.V. Ganeshananthan.

The Gratiaen Prize was established by Sri Lankan Canadian author Michael Ondaatje in 1993 with the Booker Prize money he won for his 1992 novel “The English Patient.” Every year, it is awarded to the best creative writing in English by authors resident in the country. This year marked the 33rd installment of the Prize.

The jury received a record-breaking number of submissions this year, nearly 100. Out of them, 12 were longlisted, and five were shortlisted. Visakesa Chandrasekaram鈥檚 novel “The Son and the Lover” was selected the winner at a ceremony held at The Studio, Cinnamon Life in Colombo early this summer. Chandrasekaram is a leading human rights activist and filmmaker in Sri Lanka.

The jury emphasized the significance of writing against the national landscape of Sri Lanka where freedom of expression has frequently been under threat. They also prioritized creative work that remains true to human expression and has not been tainted by artificial intelligence.

鈥淲e gravitated toward work driven by absolute purpose鈥攚riting that is inherently bold, curious, honest, and innovative,鈥� the Jury noted while announcing the winner. 鈥淲e sought writing that taught us to see the relationship between local and global anew, that did not overexplain or apologize, and that saw and celebrated Sri Lankan vernacular as well as the global aspects of Sri Lankanness. We thought about how literature centering overlooked parts of the island could interrogate its subject matter strictly on its own terms. We searched for work unafraid of engaging with the political and its relationship to the personal.鈥�

The prestigious Gratiaen Prize is often considered a local writer鈥檚 gateway to global readerships. Former winners include the 2022 Booker Prize-winner Shehan Karunatilaka and Carl Muller. The Jury report can be accessed