The Annasi & Kadalagotu Lit. Fest – a literature festival for people from all walks of life – will be held on the 25th of April at the Aesthetic Resort, 275/74 Prof. Stanley Wijesundera Mw, Colombo 7. It will start at 10.00am and continue throughout the day. The concept is all about making literature available to a large cross section of society. Hence a ticket is priced at just Rs. 100/-. The event will feature works of a range of both well known and lesser known  local writers of English, Sinhala and Tamil mediums and there will be many interesting segments such as Q n A sessions, book launches, discussions and performance poetry. There will also be entertainment options such as  acoustic music and street painters painting portraits. The event will be sponsored by Jetwing, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Maliban and DPMC Welfare Society. Because this event was envisioned by Capt. Elmo Jayawardena, he was given the task of officially launching the A & K Lit. Fest  website. You can now access it through http://www.aklitfest.com.

Profiles of some of the authors who will feature at the Lit. Fest.

Deshamanya Weerakoon

Bradman Weerakoon now 84 years old was a member of the Ceylon Civil Service. During his public service career he was a Government Agent, a permanent secretary to Ministries, a Secretary to the Prime Minister and a Presidential Advisor. After retirement he was selected as the Director – general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, a global NGO, and spent five years in London. Mr Weerakoon has written and spoken extensively on issues connected with conflict resolution, human rights and governance, health and population and public administration. His published writings include three books -  ‘Premadase of Sri Lanka’ 1992 (Vikas, India), ‘Rendering unto Caesar’ (Sterling Publishers, India) 2004, which recounts the  inside story of his association with ten national leaders as they faced the political and security challenges confronting Sri Lanka; and Kalutara – An Odyssey (Stamford Lake 2010), researching the history and life of the people of this district. He now lives in his village writing his personal memories.

Chammi Rajapathirana – Book Launch

Chandima Rajapatirana  is a poet, essayist, activist, and a presenter at numerous international conferences.  As a person with non-verbal autism he is an ardent advocate for the communication rights of all people (autistic or otherwise) including the right to be taught an alternative communication system when needed.  After thirty two years in the US he and his family returned to Sri Lanka to set up the E.A.S.E. Foundation, an organization that works to enable people with disabilities create productive, stimulating lives. The book being launched is a collection of his work done over many years.  In his essays and presentations he examines and explains his experience of autism, especially movement difficulties and anxiety.  His writing on this aspect has been seminal and has been translated into Japanese.  During his years in the US after he started communicating he was frequently a guest presenter at numerous conferences and university campuses.  From 2003 to 2006 he lived in Syracuse, New York working closely with the Facilitated Communication Institute at the University of Syracuse doing presentations and trainings at its numerous workshops.

His intention in publishing this book is to help parents, professionals, and society at large understand the people with disabilities among them. He hopes this too will be a small step towards a world where diversity is celebrated and we all belong.

He says, “Call me Chandima or Chammi,  a poet and a writer an activist or an   advocate and if you must you may call me autistic or disabled but please don’t call me “differently abled”.

Tissa Jayatilaka

Tissa Jayatilaka has served as the Executive Director of the Bi-national United States-Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission of Mutual Academic Exchange since May 1989. He is also a Visiting Lecturer at several Sri Lankan universities since 1977 and was Visiting International Scholar at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa (2001). Together with Prof. K.M de Silva, he is co-contributory editor Peradeniya: Memories of a University (1997), joint-editor with Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala of A Garland for Ashley: Glimpses of a Life Celebrating the 75th Birthday of Ashley Halpe`and his 50 years of University Teaching(2008) and, more recently, editor of SIRIMAVO Honouring the world’s first Woman Prime Minister(2010), and of Excursions and Explorations-Cultural Encounters Between Sri Lanka and the United States( 2003). He was also the editor of InternationalRelations in a Globalising World, a journal of current affairs of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies of Sri Lanka(2005) and North-South Perspectives(1987).

Jayatilaka graduated with a B.A. (Special) degree in English from the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya. He attended Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts (1983 to 1984) and Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from which he secured respectively, a Post-Graduate Diploma in American Studies and a Master's degree in English. In October 2004, he received his Master's degree in Public Administration from the Postgraduate Institute of Management of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.

Imaad Majeed

I am a 23 year old poet, singer-songwriter, rapper, former journalist, aspiring ad man and co-founder, editor and publisher of the small-press publishing house Annasi & Kadalagotu. My debut EP Verse, Chorus, Verse was released in July 2012, with two radio singles on Yes 101, and the track "My Love" reaching #2 on the Yes Home Grown chart. Rooted in bluesy-folk-pop, my music has branched out towards socially conscious rap, adding a dimension of beat and melody to my rhythmic style of poetry. A poet at heart, I am known for my lyricism, innate rhythm and a knack for controversial subject matter. Having performed at many an open mic, bourgeois farmer's markets, Rockapalooza and Melomanic Sessions, I never fail to grab attention and hold it right through my sets. Known better for my repertoire as a singer-songwriter, very few know my roots lie in recording my favourite rap songs on a cassette, rewinding to take down lyrics back when a Dial Up internet connection stacked up a heavy phone bill.My poetics have evolved from free-verse to conceptual poetry, having studied contemporary and modern American poets through a MOOC by UPenn. My spoken word performance of Thambivamsa and A N T I P O E M have cut to the heart of matters, enough to have a fellow Muslim call me out for using "derogatory, racist" terminology. Still, none of this has led to self-censorship, and that is a fact made quite evident by my constant insistence on stoking the flame.

Parvathi Arasanayagam

Parvathi Arasanayagam is a Sri Lankan writer and poet. She has published over six collections of poetry and short stories. She was recently awarded a Publisher's prize for her poetry. At the moment she is working on a novel and a collection of short stories. Her themes are on war and violence, gender issues, identity, ethnicity and other social, cultural and economic problems in our society. She is also interested in drama. When she was in the university of Peradeniya,, she won the best actress award at the inter-hall drama competition. She has also directed an award winning play, written by her father T.Arasanayagam when she was a student at the University of Peradeniya.

Jean Arasanayagam

In "the essay Why I write" changing ideologies, political and social awareness, war and violence, identity, women and their needs and their concerns, victim/victimizer, the colonized and the colonizer all play a role in the limitless universe of my psyche". Jean Arasanayagam is a Sri Lankan writer of fiction, poetry, plays and non Fiction. She has written over forty books and there are more forthcoming.

Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe

Ramya is the author of Rhythm of the Sea, and Trinity. Her book of poetry, There's an Island in the Bone, was published in 2011 and won the 2011 State Literary Joint Award for poetry. She was longlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize, of Ireland in 2011 and was a joint runner-up to the UK's Guardian Orange First Words Prize of 2009.  The Times-online of UK, featured her in its 2009 selection of contemporary war poetry.  In 2001 she represented Sri Lanka at the Medellin Poetry Festival, Colombia, in South America. Her poetry has been published by The Poetry Journal, Chicago and by Osprery, Scotland.

Vihanga Perera

Vihanga Perera is the author of 03 novels, 02 collections of short fiction, 04 editions of poetry and a corpus of essays on Lankan English Literature. He has contributed to the popular media on the arts and society and is a teacher of English Literature at the Department of English, University of Sri Jayewardenapura.

He has been shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2006 and 2008. His most recent publications include Love and Protest (2015) – poetry – and a contribution to The Pen of Granite (2015): a commemorative edition on Richard De Zoysa.

Shehan Karunathilake

Shehan Karunatilaka was born in Galle and raised in Colombo. He writes advertisements, articles, stories and songs. His debut novel, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew was published to acclaim in India, the UK and the US, and won the Commonwealth Book Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2012. It was also awarded the 2008 Gratiaen Prize and selected as one of the of 2011’s top debuts by Waterstones UK. He lives in Colombo, where he is busy with a first child and a second novel.

Dhananath Fernando

Dhananath is an amateur blogger (Soul of Dhana), traveller and a researcher by profession. In one sentence he is a ‘Simple Liberal Strategist’.

Manuka Wijesinghe

Manuka Wijesinghe is the author of 'Theravada Man', 'Sinhala Only' and 'Monsoons and Potholes'. Her first love is dance, second love is drama and the third is the study of langauges, both dead and a live. When she gathers too much information and too much sensation she writes books as a release.  Her books are journeys into time, space and the soul of Ceylon's diversity. She is bound to the island. She has tried hard to leave its limitations, but cannot. Her island birth plagues and haunts her. No matter how far she travels, she carries her island with her. Yet, her island has no 'Sri' as a prefix. The place with the 'Sri' is not her home. Her books are an attempt to discover what was taken from her. And a generation like her. By institutions that were created to safeguard and protect those like her. But, ended up robbing them instead. Of their home, of their language, of their faith.