Sri Lankan Australian Playwright S. Shakthidharan Wins Prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize

Sri Lankan Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan, also known as Shakthi, has been awarded the 2024 Windham-Campbell Prize for drama, an international literary award valued at $US175,000. This prestigious prize recognizes writers for their body of work across categories including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama. Recipients are nominated secretly and cannot apply.

Shakthidharan was specifically recognized for his multigenerational plays, which often explore Sri Lankan Tamil migrant experiences. He was informed of his win via email while filming his debut movie, The Laugh of Lakshmi, in Sri Lanka.

Shakthidharan stated that the prize money enables him to continue his writing career and focus on his artistic endeavors, and he expressed pride that his stories could achieve global recognition and visibility.

About the Awardee

S. Shakthidharan's notable works include:

• Counting and Cracking: His debut play, co-written with Belvoir artistic director Eamon Flack, received the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature in 2020. This play spans nearly five decades, has a runtime of three-and-a-half hours, and draws inspiration from Shakthidharan's family history, including their departure from Sri Lanka following the 1983 Black July pogrom. The play toured the UK and New York.

  Shakthidharan has previously commented that creating the play assisted him and his mother in addressing their migrant identities.

• The Jungle and the Sea: Co-written with Eamon Flack in 2022, this play examines the impact of the Sri Lankan civil war (1983-2009). Upcoming performances are scheduled at Belvoir St Theatre from July 11 to August 2, and at Melbourne Theatre Company from August 14 to September 12.
• The Wrong Gods: This play premiered in Sydney in 2025 and focuses on the tension between progress and tradition, alongside environmental degradation.
• Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath: Shakthidharan released his debut memoir last year.

In addition to his writing, Shakthidharan is a director and a co-founder of Kurinji, a Western Sydney theatre company.

The Windham-Campbell Prize

Judges for the Windham-Campbell Prize described Shakthidharan as a storyteller whose work traverses time and space while remaining anchored in core emotional truths.

Other recipients of the 2024 Windham-Campbell Prizes include British novelist Gwendoline Riley and Belgian American writer Lucy Sante. Past Australian recipients of the prize include author Helen Garner, playwright Patricia Cornelius, and poet Ali Cobby Eckermann.