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Gunathilake Bandara Senanayake (14 July 1913 – 16 March 1985) (known as G.B Senanayake) was a prominent Sinhala writer who portrayed Sinhala middle-class life in his novels. He is credited with introducing free verse poetry to Sinhala. He became blind later in his life and still managed to write 16 books with help from his sister. The second stage of Sinhala short stories begins with G.B. Senanayake's short stories. Though mainly focused on short stories Senanayake also wrote Novels and Poetry as well. He introduced 'Nisandas' during a time when Sinhala poetry was in need of a different style. G.B. Senanayake was a writer who was very concerned about being grammatically correct in writing.

Literary work


  • At the age of 19 he started writing short stories to the newspapers. Though they weren't published he didn't give up. This was how Martin Wikramasinghe got to know about Senanayake's talents.
  • Senanayake's first collection of short stories was 'Duppathun Nethi Lokaya' which was published in 1945. This was followed by 'Paliganima' (revenge), published in 1946. The works he included in 'Paliganima" calling works between prose and poetry is considered as the beginning of 'Nisandas' (Free Verse Poetry).
  • Some of his books are used as text books for Sinhala General Certificate of Education Advanced Level examination and at Universities.
  • Three of his novels won the Sinhala Literary Awards granted by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
  • When he lost this eyesight he was half way through writing the book 'Sahithya Sithuwili Dharshana'. When he declared his fear of being unable to finish the book his sister-in-law offered to write it if dictated. Out of his 50 odd books about 20 were written after he became blind.
  • His last poem 'Rathriya' was written barely five hours before his death.