“Speculative Fiction from South Asia: A Conversation with Vajra Chandrasekera” at Cornell University (SAP event), 19th March 2026

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Nebula and Ursula K. Le Guin Award winning author Vajra Chandrasekera discusses his writing with Anindita Banerjee, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, and Suman Seth, Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science.

Vajra Chandrasekera is from Colombo, Sri Lanka. His novels The Saint of Bright Doors and Rakesfall have between them won Nebula, Le Guin, Ignyte, Locus, Crawford, and Otherwise awards, been selected as New York Times Notable Books of 2023 and 2024, and been nominated for Dragon and Lamda Awards, among others. He is one of the 2025-2026 Fellows of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. His short stories, poems, and articles have appeared in many publications including ClarkesworldWest Branch, and The Los Angeles Times. He has worked as a fiction editor for Strange HorizonsThe Deadlands, and Afterlives: The Year’s Best Death Stories, and as a contest judge for the Dream Foundry and the Salam Award. He is online at vajra.me and probably on whatever social media still exists at the time you’re reading this.

Books will be available for sale and signing after the lecture, from Odyssey Bookstore.

source: South Asia Program, Cornell University

“‘I thought I was a bad son’: the emotional distance between migrants and their children” by Guy Gunaratne

In 1951, Guy Gunaratne’s Sri Lankan father learned English by reading in a London bookshop. Almost 70 years later, the same shop sells his son’s novel.Guy Gunaratne considers their very different journeys.

To read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/02/story-father-immigrant-experience-guy-gunaratne?CMP=share_btn_fb

Source: The Guardian

The Launch of the Journal “City” a quarterly magazine of South Asian literature

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) cordially invites to the launch of the journal  “City” a quarterly magazine  of South Asian literature at the ICES Auditorium , 2, Kynsey Terrace, Colombo 8 on Tuesday, July 11 at 4:30 pm . CITY a literary journal  in English, exploring the contemporary creative field in South Asia  in its many languages and styles.  In the new version of CITY (June 2017),  special section is dedicated to contemporary Sri Lankan writing in Sinhala, Tamil and English.

see : City Journal

Senthuran Varatharajah nominated for the Bachmann Preis for German Literature

Senthuran Varatharajah (PhD candidate in Philosophy, HU Berlin), who is now officially nominated for the Bachmann Preis for German Literature for his unpublished and unfinished manuscript. It’s the first time in the 38 year-old history of the Bachmann prize that an unpublished author stands nominated for one of the most renowned German language literature prizes. He’s also only the third person of colour to ever be nominated in the history of the prize (the other being of Iranian and Turkish descent). He’ll be live reading a chapter from his book between July 2nd and 4th on German, Austrian and Swiss national television.

The 38th ‘Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur’ (Days of German Language Literature) will also be available online via live stream.

via: http://bachmannpreis.eu/de/autoren/4626

source: bachmannpreis.eu

“The Idea of A Sri Lankan Canon In English Literature” by Vihanga Perera (In Love With a Whale)

“In the Introduction of a mid-1990s anthology on Sri Lankan writing in English, an eminent Emeritus Professor cum authority on that subject suggests that Ediriweera Sarachchandra is perhaps the “best” writer the country has ever produced. It is true that Sarachchandra — a noted scholar cum authority of literature in the Sinhala — has made a contribution to English Literary creativity between the 1970s and the late 1980s, with works such as Curfew and a Full Moon and With the Begging Bowl. Sarachchandra has also contributed to the discourse of English Literature in Sri Lanka in the capacity of a translator and critic, as exemplified by his translations of work such as K. Jayathilake’s Charitha Thunak (as The Chaff of Grain), which holds out as a compact and faithful translation, even today, four decades on.”

via: http://slwakes.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/the-idea-of-a-sri-lankan-canon-in-english-literature/

source: slwakes.wordpress.com

“Sri Lankan Migrants and Identity in Contemporary British Fiction: Roma Tearne’s Art of Memory” by Marianne Godard

We are pleased to share a link to download the Master thesis of Marianne Godard which deals with “Sri Lankan Migrants and Identity in Contemporary British Fiction: Roma Tearne’s Art of Memory”. This work, headed by Professor Ruth Morse, was realized in the framework of the Master in Anglophones studies at the University Diderot Paris 7.

Master Thesis Marianne Godard

Référence: Godard M., 2011, “Sri Lankan Migrants and Identity in Contemporary British Fiction: Roma Tearne’s Art of Memory”, Master’s thesis in Anglophones studies, Paris, University Diderot Paris 7, p.57