The best Tamil novel award was won by Political Prisoner Sivalingam Arooran.

A Tamil political prisoner who has been imprisoned for the past 16 years has been awarded the Best Tamil Literary Novel Award.

Sivalingam Arooran, a Tamil political prisoner, was given the State Literary Award for the novel he had written in prison and published. His novel depicts the constructive and humanitarian roles of a wife, aunt, daughter-in-law, and society member, all played by a re-habilitated former female militant.

The Novel was written in the Prison and received good reviews from critics.

The same novel also won the Era Uthayanan Award, awarded jointly by the Colombo Tamil Sangam and the London Tamil Sangam.

Arooran Hons, a graduate of the University of Moratuwa, was reading for an M.Sc. in Water Engineering when he was kidnapped in a white van off Soysapura Flats in Colombo on 2008.3.24. He has been arrested under PTA Act and kept in several prisons for the last fourteen years.