about me

I am Sri Lankan. I write poetry, plays and fiction.

"Breaking News" my first collection of short stories was published by Vijitha Yapa Publications in April 2011. It was also shortlisted in MS for the Gratiaen Award 2010.

I worked at the Sunday Times and the Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka and in International Organizations including the World Bank and Commonwealth Secretariat before working as a Consultant Writer/Editor. I read for an Honours degree in English Literature from the University of Kelaniya and hold a Masters in International Relations from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. My dissertation topic for the BA was on Salman Rushdie, a writer that I still follow.

I have also published two studies on Women's Empowerment and Economic Development. I am a recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award for Young People.

favourite books

A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf, Snow - Orhan Pamuk, Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie, Golden Gate - Vikram Seth, The Blind Assassin -Margret Atwood, When We Were Orphans - Kazua Ishiguro, The Grass is Singing - Dorris Lessing, The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje, The Woman Who Walked into Doors - Roddy Doyle, The Famished Road - Ben Okri, Marley and Me -John Grogan, The Fengh-Shui Junkie - Brian Gallagher, Skinny Legs and All - Tom Robbins, Ten Big Ones - Janet Evanovich and many more.

I have previously read and enjoyed most of the works by Jane Austen, the Brontes, Thomas Hardy, E. M. Forster, Ruth Praver Jhabvala, Ian Fleming, Paulo Coelho, Gabriel Garcia Marquez amongst many others.

My favourite poets are the dead poets, Keats, Emily Dickinson and Frost and i love the plays of Shakespeare and Marlowe.

my websites

http://shiranirajapakse.wordpress.com