GLF participants at a glance
Asitha Ameresekere
 Asitha is a writer and filmmaker living in London. He was brainwashed
by Greek myth at an early age and has attempted to tell stories ever
since.
His films have won awards internationally, including a BAFTA in 2007
for his short film, ‘Do Not Erase’, and a European Film Academy Award
nomination for his most recent film ‘14’, which explores abuse within a
family.
A collection of his short stories, ‘Wedding Gifts & Other Presents’,
was published in August 2008. He is currently working on a couple of
feature film screenplays. More information can be found at
www.punchifilms.com.
Chamali Kariyawasam
 Chamali Kariyawasam remembers first writing poetry as an
eight-year-old. Today, as the Executive Assistant to the Chairman, Bank
of Ceylon, she still finds herself frequently inspired to put pen to
paper.
Majoring from Royal Holloway, University of London with a Combined
Honours in Mathematics, Economics and Management, she also has a
Master’s in Economics from University College, London.
Her love of dance and movement, in both traditional forms such as
Kandyan and more recently in the international style Latin American, is
reflected in her work. She has contributed articles to several
publications both local and foreign, over the years.
Edna o’Brien
Edna o’Brien is one of Ireland’s leading authors. After James Joyce,
she is the best-known banned Irish writer of the 20th century. She was
born in Tuamgraney, County Clare, in the west of Ireland. O’Brien left
Ireland in the late 1950s, when she eloped to London with the
Irish-Czech novelist Ernest Gebler.
She began her writing career in 1960 with The Country Girls. The
novel’s immediate success and notoriety quickly propelled her into a new
world.
The Irish censors banned the book, objecting to the sexual awakening
portrayed and further condemnation followed from the Irish hierarchy and
the then Minister for Culture, who deemed it “a smear on Irish
womanhood.”
In her native village there was anger about the book, a few copies of
which were burned in the grounds of the parish chapel. She has published
over twenty works of fiction, including Down by the River, Wild
Decembers, In the Forest and most recently, The Light of Evening. She
has written a biography of James Joyce and her book, Byron in Love is to
be published in January 2009.
She has been the recipient of the Irish PEN Lifetime Award, The
European Prize for Literature, the Ulysses Medal from University College
Dublin in 2006 and the American National Arts Gold Medal, among others.
She is an honorary member of the American Academy of Letters.
Michael Meyler
 Michael Meyler’s book ‘A Dictionary of Sri Lankan English’ was
published in November 2007 - the result of 20 years of eavesdropping on
conversations, collecting newspaper cuttings, and jotting down words on
the backs of envelopes. Updates to the dictionary, an album of photos,
and a series of articles related to Sri Lankan English, can be found on
www.mirisgala.net.
Michael first came to Sri Lanka as an English teacher in 1985. He now
teaches beginners’ courses in colloquial Sinhala and Tamil. He has been
working at the British Council in Colombo since 1995.
Jake Oorloff
 Jake Oorloff’s most recent work ‘A Bedtime Story’ was performed at
the Punchi Theatre, Borella, in June 2008.
He also devised and directed ‘Voicing Silence’, which was performed
at the Galle Literary Festival in January 2008 and ‘In a Shadow,’ an
evening of performance poetry at St. Andrew’s Scots” Kirk in November
2007.
He is the Co-creative Director of Floating Space and Co-founder of
Bolo Theatre, and has directed productions for the Abu Dhabi Dramatic
Society and the Abu Dhabi Choral Group.
Recent work as a performer includes, Checkpoint - Three Strangely
Normal Plays (Colombo 2006 and Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai 2007),
Voicing Silence (Colombo 2006) and Stories from Around the Dinner Table
(Colombo 2006).
Jake works with non-actors to produce theatre and has worked with
children with developmental needs at the Rehabilitation Centre for the
Communication Impaired (Colombo) and The Future Centre (Abu Dhabi).
Richard Boyle
 British-born Richard Boyle arrived in Sri Lanka as a filmmaker and
scripted and produced the movies ‘East of Elephant Rock’ (1976) and
‘Rampage’ (1977), plus documentaries for UN agencies and NGOs.
He then became a full-time writer, contributing historical essays on
Sri Lanka to local and overseas publications. In 2000, he began to
assist the Oxford English Dictionary in the revision of its entries of
words of Sri Lankan origin, which resulted in the glossary Knox’s Words
(2004). His latest book is ‘Sindbad in Serendib: Strange Tales and
Curious Aspects of Sri Lanka’ (2008).
Romesh Gunesekera
 Romesh Gunesekera is an international award-winning writer of fiction
and poetry. His first novel ‘Reef’ was short listed for the 1994 Booker
Prize. He is also the author of The Sandglass, (winner of the BBC Asia
Award) and ‘Heaven’s Edge’, which, like his collection of stories
‘Monkfish Moon’, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
His fourth novel, The Match, was described by the Spectator as
‘effortlessly accomplished,’ and the Irish Times as a book that ‘shows
why fiction is written - and read’. His fiction has been translated into
more than ten languages and his poetry has won several prizes.
His books are studied on school and university courses in many
countries and Reef is a prescribed text in the 2008 English Literature A
level syllabus in Britain. He is an Associate Tutor on the graduate
writing programme at Goldsmiths College, University of London and has
been a trustee of the Arvon Foundation (for creative writing). He has
also been a writer-in-residence in Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark and has
run workshops all over the world.
His workshop in Greece was listed in the top ten activities for 2008
by the Sunday Times in London. In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature and in 2005 received a National Honour in
Sri Lanka. This year he was awarded the Jura Writer’s Retreat by the
Scottish Book Trust.
Shehani Gomes
 Shehani Gomes says she is not a writer by choice because she only
writes when she is absolutely compelled by her (very) inner thoughts. Or
she would rest and relax, like the rest. She’s trained to be a financial
analyst, loves investment finance and realises that’s an odd thing for a
writer to say. At present, she’s working as a management consultant for
a carbon finance company in Sri Lanka.
Her first novel, Learning to Fly, was published in November 2008.
It’s described as “a sensitive novel about first love and heartbreak. A
complex, bitter-sweet coming of age story that looks at the modern urban
Sri Lankan youth in a new and fresh way.” She admits that she’s obsessed
with adolescence and its quirkiness and probably has a few more thoughts
to impart on the subject in years to come.
Vihanga Perera
 Vihanga Perera is the author of two published volumes of short
fiction: The(ir) (Au)Topsy (2006) and Because the Night (2007). The
former was short listed for the Gratiaen Prize.
His writing is widely regarded as experimental and unique. His maiden
novel, Stable Horses, and a volume of poetry on which he is currently
working, will be released shortly. |
