Sharmila Seyyid is a journalist, poet, writer and activist from Eravur, in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province. She has been working as a journalist and a writer since 2001, and as an activist for women in the Batticaloa District since 2006. In 2009, she founded the Organization for Social Development, a community-based organization in Eravur. Read More She has been working closely with the minority women in the east, for the last several years, following the war. Her interests include printing, writing and media collaboration about women, child issues, humanitarian issues, youth activism, women rights and gender.

Sharmila is the author of a poetry collection called Siragu Mulaitha Pen. She received two awards for her contributions to literature: the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writer and artists association’s Master Gorkki Memorial Award for Poetry Literature, and the Tamiliyal Award, presented by the Writers Motivation Centre. Ummath is her latest book.