She was recognised in Sri Lanka, Australia, throughout Europe, and the United States, due to her substantial creative and critical publications in the field of English and post-colonial literature.
Gooneratne was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in 1990 by the Australian government for her distinguished services to literature and education,[13] the only Sri Lankan to have received this honour.
[14][15] Her international scholarship and pioneering work in the study and appreciation of postcolonial literature was described as being recognized by "Macquarie University's first higher doctoral degree (D.Litt.
), the Order of Australia, and the Samvad India Foundation's Raja Rao Award for Literature which acknowledges authors who deal with the South Asian Diaspora in their literary work.
"[16] The Sunday Times of Sri Lanka wrote of Gooneratne: When Saraswati did come into Yasmine’s life... she took the form of the goddess Tara.
This international prize celebrates writers and scholars who have made an outstanding contribution to the literature of the South Asian diaspora, and the honour delighted Yasmine even as it took her by surprise.
These 5 printed issues were digitally scanned, called ‘The Quintet’, and made available as an open access resource on the New Ceylon Writing website, newceylonwriting.com, after the publication was brought online in 2016.
[19] In 1999, Gooneratne co-wrote, with her husband, This Inscrutable Englishman, a biography of Sir John D’Oyly, a civil servant in British Colonial Sri Lanka.