2016 Oct 18
The Galle Literary Festival is an event anticipated by anyone and everyone who adores literature and arts in South East Asia. Set in the beautiful and serene surroundings of Galle, the Fairway Galle Literary Festival features writing workshops, panel discussions, topical debates, poetry readings, cooking classes, theatre workshops and literary lunches, while during the night there are poetry slams, jazz performances, wine tastings, art showings and photographic exhibitions, which take place at historical landmark locations, boutique hotels, and private properties, making this festival truly an immersive cultural experience that celebrates literature and the arts.
The Festival will take place on 11th to 15th January 2017. For those of you seated at the edge of your seats, eager to know what’s happening at the next Galle Literary Festival, here’s a quick glance at what’s in store.
Participants at The Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2017
Afdhel Aziz
Afdhel Aziz grew up in Sri Lanka, before moving to London to get a degree in English Literature from King’s College London. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York where he works as a full-time brand and marketing strategist. He is the author of China Bay Blues’ a book of poetry that was short-listed for the Gratiaen Prize and won the State Literary Award for Poetry. He published his novel Strange Fruit, about love and war in Sri Lanka to critical acclaim. Passionate about social entrepreneurship, he is also the co-author of the book Good is the New Cool: How Capitalism can Save the World which is coming out in 2016 from ReganArts.
Alison Wearing
Amish Tripathi
Described as ‘India’s first literary pop star’, Amish’s unique combination of crackling story-telling, religious symbolism and profound philosophies has made him an overnight publishing phenomenon. His four books — The Immortals of Meluha (2010), The Secret of the Nagas (2011) and The Oath of the Vayuputras (2013) collectively comprise the Shiva Trilogy – the highest selling series in the history of Indian publishing – and Scion of Ikshvaku (2015) — have sold over 3.5 million copies and been translated into 16 languages. Amish is a graduate of IIM-Calcutta and worked for 14 years in the financial services industry before turning to full-time writing. He is passionate about history, mythology, philosophy, and finding beauty and meaning in all world religions. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Preeti and son, Neel.
Anantha Padmanabhan
Anantha Padmanabhan is a dog lover, photographer, novelist, bibliophile, bookseller and CEO at HarperCollins Publishers India. His first work of fiction, Play with Me, was published by Penguin in 2014.
Anita Nair
Winner of National Film Award, 2012, Central Sahitya Akademi Award for Children’s Literature, 2013. Anita Nair is the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of numerous books including The Better Man, Ladies Coupe, Idris: Keeper of the Light and Alphabet Soup For Lovers. Her new novel, Chain of Custody has just been published. She has alsopublished a collection of poems titled Malabar Mind and a collection of essays titled Goodnight & God Bless and has written two plays and the screenplay for the adaptation of her novel, Lessons in Forgetting, which won the National Film Award for 2012. She was awarded the Central Sahitya Akademi award for her contribution to Children’s Literature in 2013. Her books have been translated into 30 languages.
Anjan Sundaram
Frontline Club Award, 2015, Royal African Society Book of the Year, 2014 Reuters Prize, 2006. Anjan Sundaram is the author of Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship and Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo. An award-winning journalist, he has reported from Central Africa for the New York Times and the Associated Press. His writing has also appeared in Granta, The Guardian, Observer, Foreign Policy, Politico, Telegraph and The Washington Post. His war correspondence from the Central African Republic won a Frontline Club award in 2015, and his reporting on Pygmy tribes in Congo’s rainforests won a Reuters prize in 2006. His work has also been shortlisted for the Prix Bayeux and the Kurt Schork Award. Stringer was a Royal African Society Book of the Year in 2014. Anjan graduated from Yale University.
Anuk Arudpragasam
Anuk Arudpragasam is from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and for the time being lives between Colombo and New York, where he is completing a dissertation in philosophy at Columbia University. He writes in English and Tamil. The Story of a Brief Marriage is his first novel. It has been published in the U.S, U.K., India and will be translated into French, German, Dutch, and Italian.
Ashok Ferrey
Best-selling Sri Lankan author Ashok Ferrey read pure mathematics at Oxford University. His two novels – Serendipity and The Professional and two books of short stories – Colpetty People and The Good Little Ceylonese Girl have all been nominated for either the Gratiaen Prize or the Sri Lankan State Literary Award. He hosts the programme ‘Art and Architecture with Ashok’, on national television. His latest book, The Ceaseless Chatter of Demons has just been released by Penguin Random House and was nominated for this year’s Gratiaen Prize. In his spare time Ashok is a personal trainer.
Brigid Keenan
Brigid Keenan is an author and a journalist. She has worked as an editor on the legendary Nova magazine, the Observer and the Sunday Times. She has published two fashion histories, The Women We Wanted to look Like and Dior in Vogue, as well as Travels in Kashmir and Damascus: Hidden Treasures of the Old City. She is also the author of the bestselling Diplomatic Baggage, and its sequel, Packing Up. Her most recent book, Full Marks for Trying, is a memoir of her childhood in India and her days as a young fashion editor at the dawn of the Sixties, when London was the hub of the fashion world. Keenan is currently working as the Fashion Editor of Oldie magazine.
Caroline Courtauld MBE
Caroline Courtauld is a writer, published photographer, and documentary film producer whose work includes the BBC documentary, The Last Governor. Her latest documentary Building China Modern was broadcast as part of the American Masters Series (PBS). Her widely acclaimed book The Forbidden City The Great Within, was a companion book to a dramatized Discovery Channel documentary. Courtauld’s first book on Myanmar was In Search of Burma (1984). Myanmar’s new regime since November 2011 has led to several new projects by Caroline, including Myanmar: Burma in Style (2012), The Irrawaddy; Burma’s Kingly Stream (2014) as well as many publications for the Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, most recently Myanmar: The Legacy 2011-2015.
Catherine Bush
Catherine Bush is the author of four novels. Her work has been critically acclaimed, published internationally and shortlisted for literary awards. Her most recent novel, Accusation, was a Canada Reads Top 40 pick and on several year-end best book lists. Minus Time, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award. The Rules of Engagement was a national bestseller and chosen as a New York Times Notable Book. Claire’s Head was shortlisted for the Trillium Award and was a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year. She lives in Toronto where she teaches and is Coordinator of Canada’s premier MFA Creative Writing Programme at the University of Guelph. Catherine Bush sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Cathy Marie Buchanan
New York Times bestseller and #1 National Bestseller in Canada. Cathy Marie Buchanan’s The Day the Falls Stood Still debuted on The New York Times bestseller list and was named Best Book of 2009 by Barnes & Noble. The book pulls us into the maelstrom of Niagara Falls. It is powerful and eloquent, a love story, a tribute to the river, and a recognition that no choice is ever made without consequences– a novel to savour, as powerful as the Falls themselves. Her gripping novel, The Painted Girls is set in belle époque Paris and inspired by the real-life model for Degas’s Little Dancer Aged 14 and the era’s most famous criminal trials. It was #1 National Bestseller in Canada and also a New York Times bestseller, People Magazine Pick and named Best Book of 2013 by NPR, Good Housekeeping and Goodreads. Cathy Marie Buchanan Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Chamber Music Society of Colombo
The Ensemble of the Chamber Music Society of Colombo (CMSC), headed by violinist Lakshman Joseph de Saram, is the region’s newest platform for exciting new interpretations of the classics, and an ardent supporter of the politically and culturally explosive music of modern Sri Lanka and South Asia. Founded in 2007, the non-profit CMSC has been hailed as one of the best run professional arts organisations in the region. Its quest is to create art through music, in a way that is relevant and challenging. The CMSC performs courtesy of Fairway Holdings, the Society’s premier sponsor.
Channa Daswatte
Channa Daswatte is one of Sri Lanka’s leading architects who lives and practices in Kotte. He was a friend, confidant and the principal assistant to Sri Lanka’s most prolific and influential architect, Geoffrey Bawa. He also writes frequently for international and local journals and magazines, and co-authored Sri Lanka Style – Tropical Design and Architecture with Dominic Sansoni. Over the years, Channa has written widely on the architecture of Sri Lanka.
Charles Uzzell-Edwards
Somewhere between the 1535 execution of Sir Thomas More and the year 2000, Charles Uzzell Edwards became the street artist known as Pure Evil. It’s a pairing of an odd lineage that has produced fanged bunnies and Warhol-esque portraiture famous throughout the streets and galleries of the world. A child of Contemporary London and Silicon Valley era San Francisco, Pure Evil is also a child of his times. His art of primarily modern icons expresses both biographical signature and western culture critique. His pop culture symbols are spewed, and therefore viewed, along the urban and artistic landscape from Sao Paulo to Sydney. It’s the artistic and commercial success that has allowed his London gallery to host shows for more than 60 independent artists. Charles Uzzell-Edwards sponsored by Galle Living.
Christina Lamb OBE
Five times Foreign Correspondent of the Year by British Press Awards, Winner of the Prix Bayeux. Christina Lamb is a leading foreign correspondent and bestselling author. She has five times being named Foreign Correspondent of the Year and won Europe’s top war reporting prize, the Prix Bayeux. She was made an OBE in 2013. She won Amnesty International’s Newspaper Journalist of the Year award for reporting from inside Libyan detention centres. Currently a roving Foreign Correspondent for the Sunday Times, her postings have included South Africa, Pakistan, Brazil and Washington and she has recently reported on the refugee crisis across Europe, and Boko Haram camps for women in Nigeria. She has written eight books including the bestselling The Africa House and I Am Malala. Her latest books are Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World, and Nujeen; One Girl’s Incredible Journey from War-torn Syria in a Wheelchair.
Colm Tóibín
Dame Margaret Drabble
Golden PEN Award, 2011. Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of eighteen novels including The Witch of Exmoor, The Radiant Way, The Peppered Moth, The Red Queen, The Sea Lady and most recently, the highly acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. She has also written biographies, screenplays and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. She was appointed CBE in 1980, and made DBE in the 2008 Honours list. She was also awarded the 2011 Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime’s Distinguished Service to Literature. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd.
David Robson
David Robson was a lecturer at the University of Ceylon from 1969 to 1972, and between 1979 and 1982 was a planning adviser on the Sri Lankan Government’s Hundred Thousand Houses Programme. Later he became Professor of Architecture at the University of Brighton and at the National University of Singapore. His books include Bawa – The Complete Works (2002), Anjalendran, Architect of Sri Lanka (2009), The Architectural Heritage of Sri Lanka (2015) and In Search of Bawa (2016).
Dawn Burnham
Dawn Burnham completed a PhD from Manchester Metropolitan University on the behavioural ecology of bachelor male patas monkeys in Kenya. Previously she worked in Zambia on blue monkeys, contributing to a wildlife management plan for Kasanka National Park. In 2006, Dawn joined the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (Wild CRU) at the University of Oxford and is currently Unit Manager and PA to Prof. David Macdonald, the Director. Her many publications include work on Nocturnal Primates and Primate Communities and Conservation inequality.
Dileepa Abeysekera
Dileepa Abeysekera is a founding partner at Heensare (Pvt) Ltd., a leading local advertising agency. He has been an influential writer and creative director for over two decades. His Sinhala translation of Shehan Karunatilaka’s acclaimed novel Chinaman is now in publication. Much of Dileepa’s faculty with words, insights and ideas may be attributed to his bilingual education. He is an old boy of Asoka Vidyalaya and Ananda College in Colombo. He is also a graduate of Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland, where he majored in International Relations and Sociology, with a special interest in social deviance and criminology. Dileepa’s other interests include poetry, music, cinema and literature.
Dinah Jefferies
A Sunday Times, UK bestseller. Dinah Jefferies was born in Malaysia and moved the England at the age of nine. She worked in education, lived in a commune and exhibited work as an artist before deciding to follow her dream of becoming a writer. Dinah is the author of three novels: The Separation, The Tea Planter’s Wife – a Sunday Times number one bestseller – and The Silk Merchant’s Daughter, also a Sunday Times top ten bestseller. Her fourth book, Before The Rains is due out in February 2017. She lives in Gloucestershire, England, and has travelled to Sri Lanka, Vietnam and India to research her novels. She is currently planning a fifth novel, to be set in Galle.
Dom Mee
Dom left home at 17 to join the Royal Marines and, one year later, headed across the Atlantic on a warship bound for the Caribbean. This was the start of a love affair with the ocean. His 2001 bid to row across the North Pacific is now a documentary for the BBC Extreme Lives series and his Arctic expeditions is a documentary for National Geographic Channel. Kiting the Hurricane – a book on this voyage is his first. Dom has a family business in the tourist sector in Sri Lanka and is an adviser on maritime and regional security. He is writing two further books on his adventures.
Fuchsia Dunlop
Fuchsia Dunlop is an award-winning cook and food-writer specializing in Chinese cuisine. She trained as a chef at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in Chengdu, and has spent two decades researching and writing about Chinese food. She is the author of five books, including the gastronomic travel memoir Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper and, most recently, Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China, about the regional cooking of Shanghai and Jiangnan. Fuchsia’s writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Financial Times, The New Yorker, Lucky Peach, Gourmet and Saveur. She leads regular culinary tours of China in conjunction with the Beijing travel agency WildChina, and has cooked and lectured at events all over the world. She is currently based in London.
Harshana Rambukwella
Harshana Rambukwella is Director, Postgraduate Institute of English, Open University of Sri Lanka. He received his PhD from the University of Hong Kong, where he is Honorary Assistant Professor at the School of English. He is an alumnus of the School of Criticism and Theory, Cornell University and has been an Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Harshana’s research interests are in postcolonial literatures, literary history and nationalism. He is a Trustee of the Gratiaen Trust which awards the Gratiaen Prize for exemplary writing in English by Sri Lankan authors. He has served on the juries of the State Literary Prize, Swarnapusthaka and Fairway National Literary Awards.
Hiphop Tamizhans
Ilangai Thamizhan is a Tamil Rap collective from Sri Lanka, formed and mentored under the pioneer Thamizh music icon KingSouth. The rap collective features rappers from all over the island with their unique styles of flow and word play. These poets hail cities and towns such as Hatton, Kandy, Jaffna, Batticaloa,
Trinco, Colombo and Ampara. Their debut single, self-titled “Ilangai Thamizhan” is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka. Boasting over 16,000 views in less than a month, the crew is now working on their second, “Oru Kilo BEEF”, which highlights the element of Beef in Hiphop music and showcases their strengths as MCs while challenging local and global Tamil rappers. The crew consists of CV Laksh, Sri Niro, Prem JR, Viky Ky, Young Krizh, GK, MC Ra, RZ Omar and Voran Zov.
Ismeth Raheem
Ismeth Raheem was first an artist and, with Laki Senanayake, a founder member of the Young Artists Group. He studied architecture at Katubedde and in Copenhagen. He assisted Geoffrey Bawa between 1968 and 1976 and worked on a number of key projects such as the Colombo Y.W.C.A., the Serendib Hotel and the Agrarian Research and Training Institute. During this period, he also designed furniture and created artworks for various Bawa hotels. Later, he practiced with Pheroze Choksy and was the architect of the celebrated Habarana Lodge Hotel. He has a wide range of interests and has published a number of books on the history of photography in Sri Lanka.
Jason Licker
Winner of Iron Chef Thailand Pastry Edition, Jason Licker, is pushing pastry in Asia to another level. Jason utilizes the sweet, salty, sour, bitter and acidic, while also combining textural contrasts and temperature difference to create his own style of Asian inspired, palate-challenging pastry. Jason’s passion for pastry, life and travel has taken him across the globe in search of true culinary experiences. Jason has held Executive Pastry Chef positions at the Peninsula New York, The Westin Bund in Shanghai, The Venetian Macau Hotel and Resort, The JW Marriott Hong Kong and he was formerly the Corporate Pastry Chef for Cé La Vi Restaurants Worldwide. With over twenty years cooking including eleven years in Asia, Jason is releasing his first cookbook, Lickerland, Asian Accented Desserts by Jason Licker. Jason Licker is sponsored by Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas.
Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala
Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala is the first Sri Lankan, and first Sri Lankan woman, to summit Mount Everest (8,848m/29,030ft), a double record she achieved at 5:03am on the 21st May 2016. She is a mountaineering professional and women’s rights advocate. Her passion for adventure is balanced with her passion for gender equality. Since 2003, she has been professionally involved with the sport of rock climbing as an instructor, while simultaneously working full-time as a women’s rights advocate. Jayanthi holds a Master’s Degree in Gender Studies from the University of Sussex, UK.
Jeeva Raghunath
Jeeva Raghunath started telling stories when she was 5 and has been evolving her story world ever since. She is a bilingual (English and Tamil) storyteller. Her repertoire includes a wide range of Indian and Asian folk-tales, European tales, family stories, true-life incidents, cross-cultural and modern stories. She has also taught French using her creative teaching techniques. One of the first books she translated was Cathy Spagnoli’s Priya’s Day. She has visited 19 countries to tell her stories. Ragunath is also the author of 9 children’s books and has translated 65 books. Jeeva’s Workshops are highly interactive and based on time-tested storytelling ideas. They have also proven effective for varied groups and ages. Topics include storytelling techniques, story development, communication skills through stories, exploring India and developing language skills through stories.
Jemima Foxtrot
Jemima Foxtrot is a poet, musician, theatre-maker and performer from Hebden Bridge, currently living in London. She performs extensively and has had work commissioned by the BBC, the Tate Britain and Latitude Festival. Jemima was shortlisted for the Arts Foundation Spoken Word Fellowship in 2015 and her debut poetry play Melody was well reviewed at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has performed in the Barbican Main Hall alongside Beck, Thurston Moore and some of UK’s leading poets including Simon Armitage and Don Paterson. Jemima’s first collection of poetry, All Damn Day, is published by Burning Eye Books.
Jennifer Murray
Recipient of Britannia Trophy and International Harmon Trophy for Aviatrices, Holder of several World Guinness Book Records for Aviation. Jennifer Murray was born in Providence, Rhode Island, USA in 1940. She has travelled extensively, run the London Marathon, trekked in Nepal and Bhutan, competed twice in Hong Kong’s 100-kilometre MacLehose Trail hiking race and exhibited water colour paintings in Hong Kong and Switzerland. A world-class achiever, she was the first woman to pilot a helicopter around the world. But it wasn’t until age 54 that Jennifer entered the world of helicopters. Already a marathon runner, successful businesswoman, mother and grandmother, being a pilot, added a whole new dimension to her life. Her book, Now Solo (2002), tells the epic journey of her eighteen months of intensive preparation for her flight.
Johann Peries
An artist inspired by nature, Johann is a hair-designer by profession and adventurer by choice. He is the only Sri Lankan male to reach an altitude of 8,400m/27,559ft on Mount Everest, which he achieved on the 21st May 2016. His passion for the great outdoors and his creative soul have struck a perfect balance, which is evident in his work, life and interests. Johann began his hair designing career 25 years ago. Opting for originality over the formulaic, he soon became popular as one of the best hair designers in the country.
John Gimlette
Winner of Dolman Travel Book Prize 2012, The New York Times nominee for ‘Books of the Year’, 2005/2004. John Gimlette crossed the Soviet Union by train at 17, and has travelled to over 60 countries since. His debut book was At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig; Travels in Paraguay (2005), published in New York, London and Milan, was followed by Theatre of Fish (2005)—both making it to The New York Times ‘100 Most Notable Books of the Year’—and Panther Soup (2008). Journeying around the Guianas resulted in Wild Coast: Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge, which won the Dolman Travel Book Prize 2012. His latest, Elephant Complex: Travels in Sri Lanka is a portrait of the country at the war’s end. John is a regular contributor of travel features to the Telegraph, Times, Guardian, Condé Nast Traveller and Wanderlust. He lives with his family in England and continues to practice as a barrister.
Kapila Kumara Kalinga
Shortlisted for the Fairway National Literary Award (FNLA) 2016, Sinhala Language, State Literary Award for Best Novel (2012), Sinhala Language, Vidyodaya Award for Best Novel (2012). Kapila Kumara Kalinga is a dramatist, novelist, lyricist as well as a creative director. As a dramatist, he has won the state award for the best adaptation and direction for his second stage drama, Rhinoceros. He has also written and directed several other plays such as Nelum Pokuna, Bin ge, Ukdandu Ginna and Api Gewanne na. Kapila’s debut novel Piyasi Kawluwa won the Vidyodaya Award for Best Novel in 2012 and was nominated for the Swarna Pusthaka Award. He has also published three other novels and three short story collections. Kapila currently works as a freelance journalist and also lectures at the Media and Management School, Colombo. His book, Sapthambaraye Diga Davasak is shortlisted for the Fairway National Literary Award (FNLA) 2016, Sinhala Language.
Katherine Boo
Winner, National Book Award in the US 2012, Pulitzer Prize 2000, Recipient of MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant 2002, National Magazine Award for Feature Writing 2004 and New York Times Bestseller. Katherine Boo, a staff writer for The New Yorker, has spent the last 25 years reporting from within poor communities, considering how societies distribute opportunity and how individuals get out of poverty. Her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, received the 2012 National Book Award in the United States and has since been published in more than 30 languages. It was a New York Times Bestseller, an international besteller and named best book of the year by numerous publications like People, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe. In 2015, the book was adapted into a play by David Hare for the National Theatre U.K and was screened live in numerous movie theatres across the globe. Her other immersive and investigative projects have received a MacArthur “Genius” grant and the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
Kishani Jayasinghe
Sri Lankan British soprano Kishani Jayasinghe was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House (2006-2008). She has since sung with the Classical Opera Company (Sadler’s Wells/Buxton Festival) and at the Wexford Festival. Kishani created the role of Nafisa in Edward Rushton’s new opera Barbur in London, which premiered in Zurich, and then performed in Basil, St Gallen and London, followed by a UK tour. Debuting at the Royal Opera as Chloë, in The Queen of Spades, Kishani also sang at Buckingham Palace for Prince Charles’ 60th birthday celebrations.
Krishan Maheson
Krishan Maheson has been in urban music since 1998. Later forming the ill noiZe crew with Iraj, he embarked on a solo career in 2004. The founder of Tamil rap music in Sri Lanka, he has been featured on Bombay Bronx and Radio Express (USA). Received the AVIMA 2010 best hiphop act (Malaysia) and also the best rap act at Derana Music Video awards (DMVA) 2011, he won the Best Tamil Music video at DMVA (2013). His debut album “Asian Avenue” was the first Thamizh Hiphop album to be released in the region. Making his first Kollywood movie soundtrack with the single “Makayaala” from the Naan movie, he later featured in movie singles as a playback artist. His latest collaborations are with top South Indian artists Haricharan and Gana Bala. His digital distribution label KingSouth Records promotes Sri Lankan Thamizh music and facilitates content production for upcoming artists.
Kristina Taylor
Kristina Taylor is a garden historian, writer and restorer of period gardens. She travelled extensively before studying journalism and developing a television career making wildlife and science documentaries. Specialising in Japanese gardens, she takes conducted tours to Japan to study their gardens. Recently, she has started taking tours around Scottish gardens. Her book, Women Garden Designers: 1900 to the Present (2015) details twenty seven of the most important and influential women garden designers and their gardens from around the world. She lectures on gardens and works as a volunteer for The Gardens Trust. She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Lesley Hazleton
The Stranger Genius in Literature Award, 2011. Writer, psychologist and TED speaker Lesley Hazleton explores the intersection of politics and religion. She has traced the roots of conflict in several award AccidentalTheologist.com figure of Prophet Muhammad tto life. She also looked at the epic Shia-Sunni split in her previous book, After The Prophet. Her earlier work includes compelling flesh-and-blood-biographies- Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of The Virgin Mother (2004) and Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen (2007). Her latest, Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, celebrates the agnostic stance as “rising above the flat two-dimensional line of belief/unbelief, creating new possibilities for how we think about being in the world”. She was the 2011 recipient of The Stranger’s Genius in Literature Award.
Lesley Hazleton sponsored by the Esufally Family Foundation.
Liyanage Amarakeerthi
Shortlisted for the Fairway National Literary Award (FNLA) 2016, Sinhala Language, National Literary Festival Best Novel Award (2008), Swarna Pustaka Awards (2016, 2014), Liyanage Amarakeerthi is a professor in the Department of Sinhala at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. He is the author of 22 books in Sinhala, including Ekamat eka Pita Rataka, along with a collection of poems and four novels. His work often portrays the rural working-class milieu in which he grew up. Among his novels, Atawaka Putthu (Half Moon Sons) won the Best Novel Award at the National Literary Festival (2008), and Ahambakaraka, and Kurulu Hadawatha won Swarna Pustaka Awards (2016, 2014). Ahambakaraka has also been shortlisted for the Fairway National Literary Awards 2016 in the Sinhala Language category.
Luke Wright
Edinburgh Fringe First award and The Stage Award for Acting Excellence, Three week sell out run in London’s West End Soho Theatre. Luke Wright writes bawdy bar room ballads about small town tragedies and Westminster rogues. His fast paced, witty poems are crammed full of yummy mummies, debauched Tory grandees, maudlin commuters and leering tabloid paps. Since 2006 he has written and performed eight one man shows, touring them to top literary and arts festivals from Australia to Scotland via Hong Kong and Bruges. His debut play What I Learned from Johnny Bevan won a prestigious Fringe First Award at The Edinburgh Fringe, and also bagged Luke The Stage Award for Acting Excellence. It had a sold out three week run at London’s Soho Theatre. His first book, Who Writes This Crap? co-written with Joel Stickley, was published in 2007. His poems are often on BBC Radios 3 & 4, while he is a regular contributor to the Sony Award winning Saturday Live.
Malika Booker
Malika Booker is a British writer, poet and multi-disciplinary artist of Guyanese and Grenadian parentage. Founder of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, a writer’s collective for beginning and emerging poets, her first stage work Absolution was commissioned by The Austrian Cultural Institute and Apples & Snakes and toured nationally. Breadfruit (2007) was recommended by the Poetry Society and Pepper Seed (2013) was long-listed in 2014 for the OCM Bocas Prize and also shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize. Awarded numerous international residencies, Malika is a Fellow of both The Complete Works and Cave Canem and was inaugural Poet in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Currently a Douglas Caster Cultural Fellow in Creative Writing at Leeds University, she is working on her next poetry collection. Malika Booker sponsored by the British Council.
Michael Fehr
Michael Fehr was born in 1982 and grew up in Muri, near Bern. He studied at the Swiss Institute for Literature and the Bern Arts College, where he gained his Masters degree in Contemporary Arts Practice. In 2013, he published his first work of fiction called Kurz vor der Erlösung (On the Verge of Salvation), followed two years later by his second work Simeliberg. Michael is also a storyteller and supports Babelsprech and Treibhaus, two initiatives to promote young German literature. Michael Fehr sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland.
Miguel Syjuco
S. F. Cader
Mrs. S. F. Cader is a long-time resident of Galle Fort, belonging to the 4th generation of a family that has lived in the Fort for more than 150 years. She is a retired teacher by profession and has conducted the Walking Tour of Galle Fort since 2010. During her tour, she brings alive this 400-year-old world heritage site through speaking on its history, architecture and anecdotes of living in the Fort.
Nayanjot Lahiri
Winner, John F. Richards Prize of the American Historical Association 2016, Winner of Infosys Prize, 2013. Nayanjot Lahiri is Professor of History at Ashoka University. Previously, she was Professor in the Department of History, University of Delhi. Her research interests include Ancient India, Indian archaeology, and heritage studies. She is author of many books including Pre-Ahom Assam (1991), The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes (upto c. 200 BC) (1992), Finding Forgotten Cities- How the Indus ivilization was Discovered (2005) and, Marshalling the Past: Ancient India and its Modern Histories (2012) She is presently working on a history of Indian archaeology since Independence. Nayanjot Lahiri won the Infosys Prize 2013 in Humanities – Archaeology. Her latest book Ashoka in Ancient India (2015) won the American Historical Association’s John F. Richards Prize in 2016.
Nayomi Munaweera
Winner of Commonwealth Regional Prize, 2013, Short-listed for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, 2012. Nayomi Munaweera is a Sri Lankan-American novelist. Her debut novel, Island of a Thousand Mirrors was long-listed for the Man Asia Literary Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Prize. It was short-listed for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the Northern California Book Prize. It won the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia. The New York Times book review called the novel, “incandescent.” The book was the Target Book Club selection for January 2016. Nayomi’s second novel, What Lies Between Us was hailed as one of the most exciting literary releases of 2016 from venues ranging from Buzzfeed to Elle magazine. Her non-fiction and short fiction are also widely published.
Neel Madhav
Neel Madhav is a new-age illusionist who combines magic with mentalism, neurolinguistic programming and criminology. Through his art, Neel aims to bring joy to those who watch him perform. He conducts corporate shows and has been part of TEDx talks, discussing being a young entertainer and a magician in India. Stemming from his passion to travel and challenge the stereotypes attached to the magical arts in the country, he has created the hugely popular travel-cum-street-magic show on NDTV Good Times, You Got Magic with Neel Madhav. The show is now entering its third season. His book, You Got Magic (2016, September) attempts to encapsulate his journey.
Open Brain
Originally conceived as an open mic that would reach beyond the standards of music, poetry, dance, and stand up comedy, Open Brain now features all forms of art. This includes arts typically reserved for galleries, including illustration, painting, photography, and film—as well as less conventional forms like storytelling, hardware hacks, software development, cooking, massage therapy, rocket designs, and conversations around everything from artificial intelligence and genetics to the role of art in society. Open Brain in Sri Lanka was initiated by Ohan Hominis and Michael Ketigian who are currently living in Colombo having travelled from New York.
Out of Time
Out of Time is a rock/blues band with a difference. The band plays loosely arranged covers of classic tunes by Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, U2, Eric Clapton and other classic rock acts, using a blues- drenched improvisational style. At the core of their work are original songs and music written by their lead singer Wade Campbell, based on his life and work on the road in countries such as Japan, Nepal and now Sri Lanka. Wade’s music has been rearranged and beefed up to suit Out of Time’s 4-piece electric format and is guaranteed to get you thinking- and dancing! The other band members are Kumar Mirchandani on lead guitar and vocals, Arosha Hettiaracchi on bass guitar and Charith Fernando on drums.
Palinda Kanangara
Palinda Kanangara belongs to the ‘Third Generation’ of Sri Lankan architects. He graduated in Physics from the University of Colombo before following a part-time course in architecture offered by the Sri Lanka Institute of Architecture. He worked for various architects such as Yamanu Ganeshan, Vinod Jayasinghe and Anura Ratnavibhushana before starting his own practice in 2004. As well as building a number of inventive private houses, he has recently completed a Buddhist temple in Kolonnawa and a hotel on the Ramboda Pass. Although Kannangara did not work with Bawa, and although his buildings exhibit no superficial affinity to Bawa’s, his handling of space and the connection between inside and outside indicates his debt to the master.
Peter Frankopan
International Bestseller. Dr. Peter Frankopan, a historian at Oxford University, is currently Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College and Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. He works on the history of the Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East, Persia, Central Asia and beyond, and on relations between Christianity and Islam. He also specializes in Medieval Greek Literature, and translated The Alexiad for Penguin Classics (2009). His book The First Crusade was published in 2012. His latest book The Silk Roads: A New History of the World’ is an international bestseller. It was named The Daily Telegraph’s History Book of the Year (2015) and topped the Sunday Times Non-Fiction charts in 2016. It was also a New York Times Bestseller and the #1 Non- Fiction Bestseller in India.
Philippa Gregory
International No. 1 Bestseller, #1 New York Times Bestselling author, Sunday Times Bestselling author. Philippa Gregory was an established historian and writer when she discovered her interest in the Tudor period and wrote the novel The Other Boleyn Girl Novel of the Year Award from the Romanti Association. It was adapted into a TV drama and a major film starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. It subsequently spawned sequel novels: The Constant Princess, The Boleyn Inheritance Queen. Her bestseller novels also includes her The Taming of the Queen Bestseller. Her most recent novel is (2016), also an international bestseller. Her love for history and commitment to historical accuracy are the hallmarks of her writing. She also reviews for and for UK newspapers, and is a regular broadcaster on television and radio.
Piyal Kariyawasam
Piyal Kariyawasam is a theatre activist, writer and lecturer on performing arts, and director of documentaries. He has won the State Drama Awards for Best Drama, Director, and Script; the State Literary Awards for Best Short Story Collection and Best Original Theatre Script; the Presidential Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies in Theatre Arts, the International Scholarship on Documentary Film Making in the U.S. and the International Scholarship for Theatre Studies in India. He has published five works of fiction, staged five theatre productions, and scripted and directed several audio-visual productions. Apart from contributing to a diverse range of publications on the arts and associated subject areas, he continues to work extensively with fiction and non-fiction writing.
Piyaseeli Wijemanna
Piyaseeli Wijemanna was Senior Professor of the Department of Sinhala at the University of Peradeniya. She retired in March 2007, and continues to serve as a visiting lecturer. Piyaseeli has over fifty academic papers to her credit, and is the author of three novels, ten story books for children, two translations and two academic works in book form. She has distinguished herself as a creative writer by winning the State Literary Award for the best collection of short stories on three occasions. She is well experienced in evaluating creative work and has functioned as a member of many evaluation boards for literary awards for the past thirty years.
Power of Play
Established in 2011, Power of Play (PoP) is a company that utilizes performing arts for communication, with a special focus on theatre and puppetry. Going back to the basic belief that the human is the key component of progressive change, PoP capitalizes on both traditional and contemporary performance techniques that sharpen soft skills and empower individuals to become dynamic change agents in their communities. PoP marries traditional art with contemporary needs to achieve a unique cultural identity for performances to promote social values critical for intelligent citizenship. Children and young adults are one of the main target audiences of PoP to promote positive behavioural changes focusing on empathy and understanding of the ‘other’. Engaging in customized solutions for both internal and external communication requirements, PoP has devised novel performances to promote education, reconciliation, development and international understanding for the corporate, governmental and non-governmental sectors of Sri Lanka.
Prashani Rambukwella
Although Prashani is a grown-up, her head is so full of stories and childhood memories that she finds it difficult to keep in mind important details. Mythil’s Secret is Prashani’s debut novel which won the Gratiaen Prize for its ability to “look at life through the eyes of a child.” Its thrilling sequel, Asiri’s Quest follows the adventures of a contemporary and not-so-contemporary young boy and friend on a journey back to World War II Ceylon. Prashani has planted a few seeds in anticipation of growing the third and final book in the trilogy but is yet to figure out just what those promising green shoots will grow into. A corporate writer by profession and a writing coach by choice, Prashani has worked in Hong Kong, India and Sri Lanka. She currently works at Smart Media The Annual Report Company and conducts writing workshops in her spare time.
Preeti Vyas
David Macdonald CBE DSc FRSE
BAFTA for best documentary film (1976). David Macdonald founded Oxford University’s WildCru (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit) in 1986, the first European university-based conservation unit. It remains the largest and best known such unit–a world-class academic centre addressing the greatest threats to wildlife. His high profile documentaries such as Night of the Fox won the BAFTA for best documentary film (1976), and his Meerkats United was awarded top prize at the Wildscreen Film Festival and was voted best wildlife film of all time by BBC viewers. It was watched by 500 million people. WildCru works in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nepal, Bhutan among other countries. In 2016, WildCru engaged in a collaboration in Sri Lanka, working with local research scientists Anjali Watson and Andrew Kittle on their long running Leopard Project.
Ramsay Nashef
A singer living in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, Ramsay started playing guitar about fifteen years ago when his dad taught him the twelve-bar blues. Six years ago, he turned his hands to the music of Joanna Newsom, an American harpist, whose instrument has many more strings than a guitar, and whose songs have complicated rhythms and rich melodies. Taking on the great challenge of reproducing these on guitar, he developed and mastered new techniques involving all ten fingers and even one toe which, combined with his joyful singing, brings to life Newsom’s melodies. He has also worked with children.
Reinhard Kleist
Reinhard Kleist has published many non-fiction graphic novels including Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness (2009), about the life of Johnny Cash that was a bestseller. In 2008, Kleist learned Spanish in order to travel to Cuba, where he drew and sketched street scenes from Havana, which he compiled in the graphic book Havanna (2009). He also wrote a graphic novel biography of Fidel Castro titled Castro. In 2011, he wrote the graphic novel The Boxer: The True Story of Holocaust Survivor Harry Haft which tells the story of Jewish Boxer Harry Haft during the Second World War. Kleist’s latest book is about the Somali runner Samia Yusuf Omar and was published in 2015 under the title An Olympic Dream: The Story of Samia Yusuf Omar. It was awarded the “Annual Lynx” and the Catholic Children and Youth Book Prize in 2016. He is currently working on a biography comic about Nick Cave. Reinhard Kleist sponsored by the Goethe Institute.
Roma Tearne
Roma Tearne is a Sri Lankan-born writer and artist living and working in Britain. Her two-decade long work as a painter, installation artist, and filmmaker has dealt with traces of history and memory within public and private spaces. She has written six novels — Mosquito, Bone China, Brixton Beach, The Swimmer, and her fifth The Road to Urbino, was published by Little Brown in June 2012 to coincide with the premier of her film of that name at the National Gallery in London. She has been short-listed for the Costa, the Kirimaya & LA Times book prizes and long-listed for the Orange Prize in 2011 and, in 2012, the Asian Man Booker. Her most recent novel, The Last Pier (2015) is set in Suffolk on the eve of the Second World War.
Saman Wickramaarachchi
Shortlisted for the Fairway National Literary Award (FNLA) 2016, Sinhala Language. Saman Wickramaarachchi’s novels include Asani wehi, Eeshwareege katha wasthuwa, Asandimiththa – shortlisted for Fairway National Literary Award 2016, and the Sinhala short stories, Sillara Premaya. As a cultural critic, he has reviewed numerous works of Sinhala Literature. Saman has also translated My Days by R. K. Narayan, as well as work by Sartre, Moravia and Chekov; Jaguar’s Smile by Salman Rushdie, Roots by Alex Haley, and The Art of the Novel by Kundera. Currently a visiting law lecturer at Sir John Kothalawala Defence University, he has an LLB Degree from Colombo University, an MA Degree from Kelaniya University and is currently a PhD Reader at Peradeniya University.
Sara Wheeler
Shehan Karunatilaka
Winner, Commonwealth Book Prize 2012, Winner, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012, Winner, Gratiaen Prize 2008. Shehan Karunatilaka was born in Galle and raised in Colombo. He writes advertisements, articles, stories and songs. His debut novel, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew was published to acclaim in India, the UK and the US, and won the Commonwealth Book Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2012. It was also awarded the 2008 Gratiaen Prize and selected as one of 2011’s top debuts by Waterstones UK. He lives in Colombo, where he is busy with a first child and a second novel.
Somini Sengupta
George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting, 2003. Somini Sengupta, a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, has reported from a Himalayan glacier, a Congo River ferry, the streets of Baghdad and Mumbai and many places in between. She is the winner of the 2003 George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting. She was the first Indian-American bureau chief for The New York Times in India. The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India’s Young is her first book, published in 2016 in the U.S and India. It is also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and IndieBound.
Sophie Hannah
International Bestseller. Sophie Hannah is an internatio psychological crime fiction, published in 32 territories. In 2014, with the blessing of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, Sophie published a new Hercule Poirot novel, Monogram Murders, charts in more than fifteen countries. In 2013, her novel Carrier, won Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Her crime novels, and The Other Half Lives Case Sensitive series on ITV1 in 2011 and 2012) Her second Poirot novel, Closed Casket published two short story collections and five collections of poetry – including for the 2007 T.S. Eliot Award. She is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge.
Sunethra Rajakarunanayake
Winner, State Literary Award, 2011, 2008, 2000, 1999, Winner, Swarnapusthaka Award, 2011, 2008, Winner, Buddhist Literature Award, 2009. Author of 43 books, Print and electronic media journalist.
Sunethra Rajakarunanayake, author, translator and tele-script writer is one of the best known writers in the Sinhala language, her books going into many prints. She is the author of many award winning, bestselling novels, among them Thiranganava (1999), Attaining Age (2000) and Nandithaya (2004)—translated into English as The Chameleon. Her other books include Subodhalankaraya (2007), Podu Purushaya (2008)—translated into English as Metta (2011) and Kavi Kandura (2011). She has also translated many books from English to Sinhala and has so far authored 43 books.
Sunil Khilnani
Sunil Khilnani is author of The Idea of India and, most recently, Incarnations: A History of India in Fifty Lives (2016), which accompanies his 50-part BBC radio and podcast series. Among his other publications are: Arguing Revolution: The Intellectual Left in Postwar France (1993), several collaborative volumes, as well as essays on Gandhi, Tagore, Nehru and contemporary Indian art and photography. He is currently Avantha Professor and Director of the India Institute at King’s College, London. He has been a Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, the Woodrow Wilson Centre Washington DC, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin and the American Academy in Berlin. He is a regular contributor of essays, articles and reviews to international media.
Sunil Yapa
Winner of Asian American short story award, 2010, Time Magazine Best Books of the year. Sunil Yapa’s first novel Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist made it to Time Magazine and Amazon Best Books of the year, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, and an Indies Next Pick. The winner of the 2010 Asian American short story award, Yapa’s work has appeared in Guernica, American Short Fiction, LitHub, The Multicultural Review and others. The biracial son of a Sri Lankan father and a mother from Montana, Yapa has lived around the world, including Greece, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, China, and India, as well as, London, Montreal, and New York City.
Sunila Galappatti
Sunila Galappatti has worked with other people to tell their stories as a dramaturg, theatre director and editor. She started her working life at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Live Theatre, Newcastle – commissioning and advising professional playwrights as well as developing and directing documentary theatre pieces with individuals from the surrounding communities. After moving to Sri Lanka, Sunila was the Director of the Galle Literary Festival for two years (2009 & 2010). She was a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Brown University. She works as a non-fiction editor at Commonwealth Writers. She lives in Sri Lanka. A Long Watch is her first book.
Sunjeev Sahota
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, 2015, Winner of Encore Award, 2015, Winner of the South Bank Sky Arts Award, 2016. Sunjeev Sahota was born in 1981 in Derbyshire. He is the author of Ours are the Streets and The Year of the Runaways, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015 and the International Dylan Thomas Prize 2016. It won the Encore Award, for the most outstanding second novel of the year, and the South Bank Sky Arts Award for literature. Sunjeev is a Granta Best Young British Novelist and the first Writer in Residence at Leeds Beckett University. He lives in Sheffield with his wife and two children.
The Galle Fort Ladies
The Crescent Ladies Welfare Association is a non-profit, service oriented organization catering to the welfare of the under privileged. The organization was established nearly 50 years ago by a group of ladies living inside the Galle Fort. They have helped poor young women and widows to earn a living by organizing various income-earning projects, and have also helped sick and elderly women by donating and fund raising for the purchase of needed equipment. The Galle Fort Ladies have been participating in the Galle Literary Festival since its inception and continue to offer support and participation.
The Music Project
The Music Project aims to change the life trajectory of children through music. Working with 6 schools in the north and south, using music as the link language, we aspire to build orchestral communities.
Tricity Vogue
Ukulele-wielding, cross-dressing ‘master showgirl’ Tricity Vogue has been in the UK cabaret scene for over a decade, charming audiences with her trademark wit, quirk and sauce. Performing solo and with her All Girl Swing Band, this London Cabaret Award nominee has also made her mark across Europe, with performances in Belgium, Ireland and Gibraltar. Tricity has five hit Edinburgh Fringe Festival shows under her belt, and The Tricity Vogue All Girl Swing Band regularly play prestigious venues including London’s Royal Festival Hall. She is also cocreator of the cult hit show ‘Heels of Glory: The Drag Action Musical’, which headlined the London Pride festival at the Chelsea Theatre (2016). Tricity’s music career began in Sri Lanka in 1992 where her alter-ego Heather Tyrrell was an English teacher at the Colombo International School. ‘Star spotted’ singing around the piano in a hotel lobby, she was invited to perform at Hilton’s Blue Elephant jazz night.