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Sri Lanka

A black-and-white photo of an interrogation room

Photo by Jonny Clow on Unsplash

It Started with a Phone Call

By Appadurai Muttulingam

First, we were taken to a private room and stripped and searched.

Translated from Tamil by Thila Varghese

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July-2023-A-Persisting-Inheritance-Out-of-Sri-Lanka-Interview-Feature

From left to right: Shash Trevett, Seni Seneviratne (photo credit: Sam Hardwick at Ledbury Poetry), and Vidyan Ravinthiran

A Persisting Inheritance: On the First-Ever Anthology of Sri Lankan and Diasporic Poetry in the UK

By Sohini Basak

“An anthology like this challenges literary marketing and literary history.”

Portrait of Meena Kandasamy

Image Copyright © Varun Vasudevan

The Poetry of Radical Female Fighters

By Suhasini Patni

When you are not held back by any fear, you can write songs of liberation.

The Voices of Contact Languages in Asia: An Introduction

By Stefanie Shamila Pillai

For multilingual writers, choosing to write in their heritage languages can be seen as an expression of agency, an active choice to communicate in a nondominant language.

The Land of Our Lives

By Magin Mario Balthazaar

The fish sing over here, / The fish sing.

Translated from Sri Lanka Portuguese by Hugo C. Cardoso

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My Beloved Lady

By Magin Mario Balthazaar

There will be no trouble, life will be good, / Come and dance the káfriinha.

Translated from Sri Lanka Portuguese by Hugo C. Cardoso

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Changing Landscapes and Identities: An Introduction to Tamil Writing

By Lakshmi Holmström

So changing landscapes are also about changing identities.

The Mother and the Goddess of Night

A snowstorm flings down / a million, million needles.

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

Horoscopes

By Appadurai Muttulingam

The midwife took the risk of dragging me out by my foot and there I was!

Translated from Tamil by Padma Narayanan

Multilingual

Three Dreams

By Sharmila Seyyid

Gardens caught up and drowning / in a vortex.

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

Ploughing the Fields of Snow

By Thirumavalavan

You, Sun, are a wanderer in the arctic winter.

Translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström

An Introduction to Sri Lankan Literature

By Ru Freeman & Malinda Seneviratne

Sri Lanka is blessed with a rich repository of narratives and narrative styles in the written and oral traditions.

The Hunter in the Wilderness of Sansara

By Simon Navagaththegama

The bird lay motionless and dead and infinitely small upon his massive palm.

Translated from Sinhala by Malinda Seneviratne

Rizana

By Kalaivaathy Kaleel

I too am a child. How would I know how to look after a baby?

Translated from Sinhala by K.S. Sivakumaran

At the Supermarket

By Ariyawansa Ranaweera

trembling for the fingertip touch, pick, and cuddle

Translated from Sinhala by Malinda Seneviratne