Sri Lankan-Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan has won the Windham-Campbell Prize for drama, receiving US$175,000 in prize money for his efforts.
The award is part of an annual programme that grants eight writers 175,000 dollars each, supporting authors across fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. The unrestricted funding enables recipients to focus on their creative work without any financial pressures. And the prizes are administered by Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Shakthidharan was recognised for his multigenerational plays exploring Sri Lankan Tamil migrant experiences including his debut work Counting and Cracking, which won the Victorian Prize for Literature in 2020. His works often examine themes of migration, identity and the impact of Sri Lanka’s civil war.
He received news of the award while filming his debut movie – The Laugh of Lakshmi – in Sri Lanka.
Shakthidharan’s other notable works include The Jungle and the Sea and The Wrong Gods. He also published a memoir titled ‘Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath.’
The Windham-Campbell judges described him as a “rare storyteller” whose work spans time and place while remaining grounded in emotional truth.