Romesh Gunesekera

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Romesh Gunesekera
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
UK, Sri Lanka Ranjana National Honour

Romesh Gunesekera

FRSL (born 1954) is a Sri Lankan-born British author,[1] who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel Reef in 1994.[2] He has judged a number of literary prizes and was Chair of the judges of Commonwealth Short Story Prize competition for 2015.[3]

Life and work

Born in Colombo to a Sinhalese Christian family in 1954, Romesh Gunesekera grew up in Sri Lanka and the Philippines, where his father was a founder of the Asian Development Bank, and moved to England in 1971 and currently lives in London. His first book, Monkfish Moon, a collection of short stories reflecting the ethnic and political tensions that have threatened Sri Lanka since independence in 1948, was published in 1992, and was shortlisted for several prizes.[4] His 1994 novel Reef was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Gunesekera travels widely for festivals, workshops and British Council tours. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature.[5] He is currently one of the writers-in-residence for the charity First Story.[6] He also has a short story related to the theme of animal poaching.

He was a judge for a number of literary prizes, such as the

Forward Prize for Poetry[8] and most recently the Granta 2013 list of the Best of Young British Novelists.[9]

He chaired the board of judges of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize competition.

He has been a Guest Director at the

Goldsmiths College and on the Board of the Arvon Foundation. For four years, until 2013, he was on the Council of the Royal Society of Literature
.

He is married with two daughters.[10]

Bibliography

Books

  • Gunesekera, Romesh (1992). Monkfish Moon.
    ISBN 9781565840775
    .
  • Reef – 1994
  • The Sandglass – 1998
  • Heaven's Edge – 2002
  • The Match – 2006
  • The Prisoner of Paradise – 2012
  • Noon Tide Toll – 2013
  • Suncatcher – 2019

Short fiction

Title Year First published Reprinted/collected Notes
Road kill 2013 Gunesekera, Romesh (2 December 2013). "Road kill". The New Yorker. Vol. 89, no. 39. pp. 62–65.

Awards

  • Asian Achievers Award for services to media, arts and culture 2015
  • Sri Lanka Ranjana 2005
  • BBC Asia Award 1998 for Achievement in Writing & Literature
  • Winner Premio Mondello Five Continents Asia Prize 1997 (Reef)
  • Winner of
    Yorkshire Post
     First Work Prize 1995 (for Reef)
  • Finalist Booker Prize 1994 (Reef)
  • Finalist Guardian Fiction Prize 1994 (for Reef)
  • Finalist
    Commonwealth Writers' Regional Prize
    1993 (for Monkfish Moon)
  • Finalist David Higham Prize 1992 (for Monkfish Moon)
  • Arts Council Writers' Bursary 1991
  • First prize in the Peterloo Open Poetry Competition in 1988
  • The Rathborne Prize in Philosophy 1976
  • Liverpool College Poetry Prize 1972

References

  1. ^ "About Romesh Gunasekera". Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  2. ^ "Romesh Gunesekera", The Man Booker Prize
  3. ^ "The 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize". Commonwealth Writers. 31 August 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  4. ^ Biography at Romesh Gunesekera website.
  5. ^ "Grammar, Style, and Usage". Writing Explained. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  6. ^ "Writers Archives". Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  7. ^ "Judges 2005", The Caine Prize.
  8. ^ "Forward Judges", Forward Arts Foundation.
  9. ^ "Granta and British Council Announce ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ Partnership", Granta.
  10. ^ Bunbury, Stephanie (2 September 2006). "Finding meaning in a long gone past", The Age, Insight, p. 10.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Romesh Gunesekera.
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