Literato’19 the literature extravaganza organized by the Rotaract club of University of Sri Jayewardenepura was held successfully on the 9th of April 2019 at the University auditorium NFC 05. The event was held to award the winners of the competition and to publish the first Journal of the club which contained the work of the winning contestants. The competition was conducted under 3 main categories namely; Poetry, Short story and Short film. The competitions were held from 5th of December to 15th of January with the participation of competitors from all around the globe. The competition was conducted under the tag line “Leave a message” with an open theme where all the participants had to deliver a message to the society through their work.

This initiative was a collection of cultural diversity and global understanding. With a total of 50+ registrations, the competition was a platform to showcase the talents of a wide range of individuals. RAC University Of Colombo, Faculty Of Science, RAC KDU, RAC University Of Sri Jayewardenepura, RAC Colombo Fort, RAC University Of Colombo, Faculty Of Arts, RAC Peace City Hatton, RAC University Of Keleniya, RAC College Of Chemical Sciences, RAC IIT, RAC University Of Moratuwa, RAC Ratnapura, RAC University Of Colombo, Faculty Of Law, RAC Badulla were the parcipants from the Rotaract Clubs all across the island representing the local competitors, while Rotary Club Of Guinée-Bissau- RID 9101, RAC Sangre Grande – RID 7030, RAC Resende- RID 4600, RAC Tepic, Mexico – RID 5080, Kenya, RAC Africa Nazarene University – RID 9212, RAC Sylhet Pioneer – RID 3100, RAC Hyderabad Galaxy – RID 3271, RAC Chandpur Central- RID 3282, Pakistan and RAC Egerton University – RID 9200 were among the foreign participants.

After a thorough process of judging, the panel of judges selected top 3 places from each category. In the category of Poetry, the first place was secured by Senali Wijesuriya from Maliyadewa Balika Vidyalaya while the 2nd and 3rd places were secured by Sanduni Subasinghe from Dalian Medical University in China and Dulanji Beneragama from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura respectively. In the category of Short stories Paramie Jayakody from the Rotaract club of IIT secured the 1st place while Samya Senaratne placed 2nd in this category.

The 3rd place for short stories was secured by Shashini Panchali from the Rotaract club of IIT. In the category of Short Films Yashith Gunewardena from the University of Uva Wellassa was able to secure both the 1st and 2nd places. On the day of the event, all the winners from each category were awarded with certificates and all the participants received certificates of participation.

Deshamanya Prof. J.B.Disanayake graced the occasion as the guest speaker for the event and added value to the lives of all the participants who attended the event by delivering a very interesting and valuable speech. The first copy of the journal “Literato’19” was presented to Deshamanya Prof. J.B.Disanayake by the President of the club.

The event concluded successfully writing a new page in the history of the club.

by Rtr. Deshadhee Wijeyarathne