Galle Literary Festival (GLF) 2008:

Sentinel stars of letters converge in the enchanting Port city today

Ranga Chandrarathne

Baptised as the "No. 1 Literary Festival in the world" by Harper's bazaar in 2007, in its maiden Literary Festival, GLF is set to take Sri Lankan and international literary buffs by surprise. One of the significant features of this year's festival is the featuring of German Literature, for the first time, with the visit of young German authoress Sandra Hoffman.

Reminiscent of the previous year, the GLF left memorable experiences as Sri Lankan authors in English were featured together with their European counterparts. The literary tour of legendary Bawa's garden at Lunuganga and revisiting Bawa's architectural legacy with Prof. David Robson and Channa Daswatte would have been an unforgettable literary excursion into the past.

Over 50 local and international authors representing diverse countries including France and Germany have already confirmed their participation for the GLF which would make it a unique event in the literary calendar of Sri Lankan as well as the globe.

The GLF will be held at venues in and around the enchanting port city of Galle against the backdrop of UN World Heritage site Galle Fort and the world famous tourist destination Unawatuna.

Being literary, being Sri Lankan

It is still important to be Sri Lankan and should also be literary, especially in English. Naturally the GLF offers much-needed international recognition and exposure for Sri Lankan writers in English. Last year the Festival featured reputed Sri Lankan authors including Ashok Ferry, Jagath Kumarasinghe, Pradeep Jeganathan, Madhubashini Ratnayake and Lal Medawattegedara.

The inaugural GLF was also enriched by the contribution made by diasporic Sri Lankan writers such as Romesh Gunasekara, Prof. Yashmin Gunaratne. Lal Medawattegedara who has produced his latest anthology of Short Stories titled "Can You Hear Me Running?' will also participate in the Festival.

His previous collection "Window Cleaner's Soul' would also be highlighted during the sessions with Sri Lankan authors.

The "Window Cleaner's Soul" manifests the author's sharp and deep insight into the lives of ordinary folks, a much needed adddum to the existing body of Sri Lankan writings in English.

"Can You Hear Me Running?' is the latest anthology of short stories by Lal Medawattegedara. Without doubt, the collection, among other things, shows works of a matured writer who has gathered experience in the finer points of the craft of writing.

In terms of material that has form the flesh and blood of the anthology, Lal has chosen wider range of themes highlighting class-affiliated prejudices and mentalities of the Sri Lankan middle class, whose sole criteria in measuring status of a person seems to be one's attire and demeanour.

Madhubhashini Ratnayake, an academic cum writer who was shortlisted twice for a Gratiaen Award, will also feature during the festival. Her anthology of Short Stories "Tales of Shades And Shadow" is marked for its economy of words and creation of male characters.

Her unique style of writing is somewhat similar to Ernest Hemingway's indomitable style of writing. Thus holding a brighter future as a creative writer though she herself described as a weird style.

Sage of Koggala and his writings

The contribution of Martin Wickramasinghe to Sri Lankan literature is legendary on several counts. Perhaps, he is the only Sinhalese author who portrayed life in maritime province in and around his birth place Koggala and Galle in a most natural and realistic light.

In his trilogy, Gam Peraliya, Kaliyugaya, Yuganthaya and later work Viragaya as well as many of his short stories which have been translated into English, Wickramasinghe encapsulates quintessential characteristic of the life in Sri Lanka at the tale end of the 19th century and social evolution from semi-feudal society to modern society and the transition from feudalism to a fully-fledged capitalism.

Reading of Martin Wickramasinghe's works by his son Dr. Ranga Wickramasinghe at the Festival would certainly turn a new chapter in Sri Lankan literature in English.

Dr.Wickramasinghe will read from English translations of short stories by Martin Wickramasinghe.

It will open a window of opportunities for international writers as well as for anthropologists to dig into the past to experience Wickramasinghe's life which he spent against the backdrop of the pastoral coastal village of Koggala.

Sandra Hoffmann and Goethe Institut's contribution to the Festival

With a unique featuring of German women writer Sandra Hoffmann, for the first time, GLF features German Literature.

Sandra Hoffmann was working in the psychiatric ward for youth and children before she studied literature, medieval studies and Italian literature in T?bingen. She worked in the faculty for comparative literature and poetry in T?bingen, where she still lives.

Since 2003 she works as a freelance author and as organizer and moderator of the event "buch&b?hne" - a series of readings with young authors in the State Theatre.

She got several honours, eg. the Georg K. Glaser prize of the S?dwestrundfunk and the province Rhineland-Palatinate. Within the project "Akshar" of the Goethe-Institutes she has been a writer-in-residence in Bombay.

Among her celebrated works inludes, Schwimmen gegen Blond,(Munich 2002) and "Den Himmel zu F? en", (Munich in 2004).

Another contribution of the German Cultural Centre (Goethe Institut) to the GLF is the Exhibition of Panoramic Photograph titled "A Pilgrim to the Buddhist Himalayas' by Jaroslav Poncar of the University of Cologne which will be held at the Old Dutch Warehouse , Hospital Road, Fort Galle. One of the salutary features of the Exhibition is that it will commence with the chanting of Pirith.

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Among the on-focused literati

Vikram Seth - India

Vikram Seth, Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and memoirist, is best known for his novels though he considers himself a poet first.

He has published five volumes of poetry. His travel book From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983) won the Thomas Cook award for travel writing. His bestseller A Suitable Boy was received with almost universal enthusiasm, notwithstanding its somewhat controversial passing-over for the Booker Prize shortlist.

Seth has won many awards including the 1985 Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia) for The Humble Administrator's Garden, and more recently the 2007 Padma Shri award.

Vivimarie VanderPoorten - Sri Lanka

Vivimarie VanderPoorten teaches language, literature and linguistics at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Her first collection of poems nothing prepares you was published in 2007.

Her poetry has been published in Channels, Nethra, Options and in Postcolonial Text, and has been read out and performed at the British Council, Colombo, at Downing College, Cambridge, the German Cultural Centre, Colombo and in the USA recently, at a felicitation event by Human Rights Watch.

She was one of three poets whose work was featured recently at St Andrews Scots Kirk in Colombo at the performance poetry event In a Shadow.

Lal Medawattagedara - Sri Lanka

Lal Medawattegedara's very first attempt at fiction, a collection of short stories titled The Window Cleaner's Soul was short-listed for the 2002 Gratiaen Award. His short story Tears Of A Coffin Maker has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service while the short stories, The Grass Cutter's Caricature, The Hero have also been published in Channels. He won the first place in the 2006 short story competition conducted by the English Writer's Co-operative. He works as a teacher and conducts reading and writing workshops for children. His new collection of short stories - "Can You Hear Me Running?" ( Zeus Publication) - was launched recently. Ashok Ferrey - Sri Lanka Born in Colombo, raised in East Africa, educated at a Benedictine monastery in the wilds of Sussex, Ferrey read Pure Maths at Christ Church Oxford, ending up (naturally) in Brixton, converting Victorian houses during the Thatcher Years.

He describes himself as a failed builder, indifferent mathematician, barman and personal trainer to the rich and infamous. Ferrey's Colpetty People was short-listed for the Gratiaen Prize in 2003.

His second book The Good Little Ceylonese Girl was published in December 2006. Today Ferrey continues to design houses, and is a guest lecturer at the Sri Lanka Institute of Architecture.

Punyakante Wijenaike - Sri Lanka

Punyakante Wijenaike, one of Sri Lanka's best-known English writers, has published six novels, four collections of short stories and more than 100 stories, in newspapers, journals and anthologies, as well as broadcasts in Sri Lanka and on BBC.

Her writings highlight, "the tyranny of a community or group towards its weaker members." Her novel Giraya was adapted into a teledrama. She was awarded the Woman of Achievement Award in 1985, the rank of 'Kalasuri' (literary achievement) in 1988, the Gratiaen Award for Amulet in 1994, and in 1996 the Commonwealth Short Story Competition for Radio along with a joint winner from Sierra Leone.

William Dalrymple - Scotland

William Dalrymple wrote highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu at 22. His second book City of Djinns won the 1994 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. Others include: From the Holy Mountain, The Age of Kali, White Moguls and most recently The Last Mogul. His television series, Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, won a BAFTA in 2002.

William is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Asiatic Society. In 2002 he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his 'outstanding contribution to travel literature'. He lives between Delhi and London.

Channa Daswatte - Sri Lanka

Channa Daswatte is one of Sri Lanka's leading architects who lives and practices in Kotte, likes travelling in his spare time. He was a friend and confidante and the principal assistant to Sri Lanka's most prolific and influential architect, Geoffrey Bawa, whose work has had a tremendous impact on architecture throughout Asia.

He also writes frequently for international and local journals and magazines. Over the years Channa has also written widely on the architecture of Sri Lanka. His most recent book Sri Lanka Style features Sri Lanka's best tropical design and architecture.

(Courtesy: galleliteraryfestival.com)

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