2024 Speakers

Speaker
Isurinie Anuradha Mallawaarachchi

Speaker

Nayomi Apsara

Nayomi Apsara is a writer, director, poet, and curator. In 2021, she made her entry into the literary world with her debut poetry collection titled Throw Me Mountains. Nayomi was a panellist at the New Ink Literary Forum in 2022.

As a filmmaker, Nayomi’s debut short film, The Tea is Cold (2022), was recognized at the Busan International Short Film Festival, where it had its Asian premiere, and at the Jaffna International Cinema Festival. Nayomi became a fellow of the International Film Business Academy in 2023 at Busan Asian Film School, South Korea. She was also a fellow at Curatorial Intensive South Asia in 2018, at Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi, India.

In addition to her achievements in the arts, Nayomi has expertise in commercial writing and advertising. She previously spent over 15 years in the corporate sector in Sri Lanka and overseas.

Top Titles

Throw Me Mountains (2021)

Speaker

Nihal Arthanayake

Nihal Arthanayake is an acclaimed broadcaster, journalist and TV presenter. He currently presents Radio 5 Live’s Afternoon Show in the UK. His extensive knowledge of music, and inimitable storytelling enable him to secure outstanding features for his radio shows. His unique interviewing style was recognised at the BBC Radio and Music Awards where he won Interview of the Year in 2019. Nihal has made a number of documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, and in 2021 he presented Nihal’s Olympic Odyssey for BBC1 from Tokyo. He is a regular on our TV screens with appearances on shows like The Hit List, Mastermind and House of Games. In 2022, his debut book Let’s Talk was published by Trapeze and received stellar reviews.

Top Titles

Let’s Talk: How to Have Better Conversations (2022)

Speaker

Afdhel Aziz

Afdhel Aziz is on a mission to solve one of the biggest problems facing individuals and companies in the 21st century: how to find purpose and meaning in their work and unlock the enormous power of business to do good in the world. He is the Founder and Chief Purpose Officer of Conspiracy of Love, a global purpose consultancy (and certified B Corp) with Fortune 500 clients like Adidas, PepsiCo, Mondelez, Microsoft and more. He is also the Co-Founder of Good is the New Cool, a creative company and content incubator focused on creating positive stories that fill the Hope Gap.

Afdhel is an internationally renowned keynote speaker, featured at the Cannes Lions, YPO, SXSW, Forbes CMO Summit, Advertising Week, Conscious Capitalism, and the Fast Company Innovation Festival. Based in Los Angeles, he writes The Power of Purpose column for Forbes. He is also the writer, producer and director of award-winning documentary The Genius of the Place: The Life and Work of Geoffrey Bawa, which will be screened during the festival.

Top Titles

Good is the New Cool: Market Like You A Give a Damn (co-authored with Bobby Jones, 2016)

Good is the New Cool: The Principles of Purpose (co-authored with Bobby Jones, 2021)

Speaker

Mary Beard

Cambridge Classics Professor Mary Beard is known across the world. She has written numerous books including the prize-winning Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town, best-selling SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome and the highly-acclaimed Women & Power, all of which have been translated into many languages. Her recent book, Twelve Caesars – Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern, looks at the representation in art and culture of the image of the Roman emperor.

Mary has presented several BBC TV series including Meet the Romans, Civilisations and The Shock of the Nude exposing the history of the naked body in Western art. Mary also writes a thought-provoking blog, A Don’s Life. For services to Classical scholarship, Mary was made a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2018 and is a trustee of the British Museum. Her new book, Emperor of Rome, explores one of the most extraordinary roles in history.

Top Titles

SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome (2015)

Women & Power: A Manifesto (2017)

Emperor of Rome (2023)

Speaker

Simon Bell

Simon is a social entrepreneur. Born in Sri Lanka, in 2007 he formed a company with three partners to invest in sustainable tourism and agribusiness ventures in Sri Lanka. AMBA Estate exports high-value organic products and offers guests a unique agro-tourism experience in the Uva Highlands. The company is developing additional tourism ventures in Sri Lanka. He is a founding member and/or director of various associations, including the Ceylon Artisanal Tea Association, Lanka Coffee Association and Ceylon Eco-Lodge Owners Association.

Previously, as a Director at global consulting firm Kearney, he advised many of the world’s leading firms on their global strategy. He developed the Global Services Location Index and authored numerous articles and white-papers – on globalisation, regional competitiveness and sustainable business. He has been a frequent speaker at international conferences and a regular commentator on global trends in various media, including The Wall Street Journal, Economist, FT and CNN.

Speaker

Jasbinder Bilan

Jasbinder is the Costa Award winning author of Asha and the Spirit Bird, Tamarind and the Star of Ishta and Aarti and the Blue Gods. In her writing she loves creating magical worlds inspired by her love of nature and wild places. Jasbinder was born on a farm close to the foothills of the Himalaya and now lives in a wooded valley near Bath with her husband, two teenage boys and dog Enzo. Her latest book, Xanthe and the Ruby Crown, is inspired by her hometown of Nottingham and brings magic to an everyday setting.

Top Titles

Asha and the Spirit Bird (2019)

Tamarind and the Star of Ishta (2020)

Xanthe and the Ruby Crown (2023)

Speaker

Sam Bleakley

Sam is a geographer, travel writer, filmmaker, presenter and surf contest commentator. Born and raised in Cornwall, Sam has a particular interest in sustainable tourism with a lasting impact. Sam has BA and MA in Geography from Pembroke College, the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from Falmouth University (and the University of the Arts London) on travel writing and surf exploration in Haiti.

Sam’s work on cultural tourism and surfing often focuses on areas that are post-conflict or post-environmental disaster, where grassroots surf communities and small-scale tourism ventures provide a wider lens to understand sustainability, diversity, inclusivity, blue health, coastscapes, and surfing’s potential to inspire positive change.

He produces an adventure activist series called Brilliant Corners, documenting responsible tourism and the power of surfing for social good in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Sam also hosts the live broadcast for the World Surf League and International Surfing Association World Longboard Championships.

Top Titles

Surfing Brilliant Corners (2010)

Mindfulness and Surfing: Reflections for Saltwater Souls (2016)

Mindful Thoughts for Surfers: Tuning in to the tides (2020)

Speaker

Tom Parker Bowles

Tom Parker Bowles is an award winning food writer, and Restaurant Critic for The Mail on Sunday. He’s a monthly columnist for Country Life, as well as Food Editor of Esquire and a Contributing Editor to Conde Nast Traveller.

He is also a regular critic on BBC’s Masterchef, and the author of eight books. His ninth, Cooking and the Crown, will be published in late 2024.

Top Titles

Let’s Eat: Recipes from My Kitchen Notebook (2012)

Fortnum & Mason: The Cook Book (2016)

Cooking and the Crown (2024)

Speaker

Nicholas Brookes

Nicholas Brookes is an author and journalist from South London. His first book, An Island’s Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket, was named Cricket Book of the Year by Wisden, The MCC/Cricket Society and The Sunday Times Sports Book Awards. He has covered the sport for publications including The Cricket Monthly, The Nightwatchman, Wisden, CricBuzz and The Cricketer.

Top Titles

An Island’s Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket (2022)

Speaker

Miguel Cunat

Based in Sri Lanka since 2003, Miguel is an entrepreneur and consultant with extensive experience in building innovative travel and tourism businesses. In 2005 he co-founded Sri Lanka In Style, a leading local Destination Management Company. Miguel is the Conde Nast Top Traveller Specialist for Sri Lanka and helps put together journeys around Sri Lanka for the highly discerning. More recently, Miguel founded Sustainable Sri Lanka, a consulting firm with a mission to help the Sri Lankan tourism industry adopt and comply with international sustainability standards.

An avid hiker and trail designer Miguel is also the founding father of The PEKOE Trail, Sri Lanka’s new and first long distance hiking trail, currently being developed with the generous support and funding of the European Union (EU) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Speaker

Chevaan Daniel

Chevaan Daniel is a former TV news anchor. He is the Group Director of The Capital Maharaja Organization, Sri Lanka’s largest TV & news media network. He currently sits on the Global Advisory Board of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs in the USA. A Fulbright Scholar, an Eisenhower Global Fellow and an Asia 21 Fellow, Chevaan is an internationally recognised speaker. He was also the UN-OCHA Maître de Cérémonie for the World Humanitarian Summit – Global Consultation in Geneva, and led the Sri Lankan delegation to the Bali Process’ Modern Day Slavery Summit in Perth, Australia. Known for his role in ‘Gammadda’, an award-winning rural development movement, Chevaan is also a published author specialising in the subject of ancient Sri Lanka.

Top Titles:

Island of Antiquity (2020)

Speaker

Channa Daswatte

Channa Daswatte graduated in 1991 and joined the architectural consultancy of Geoffrey Bawa. He later founded MICD Associates in partnership with Murad Ismail in 1998. Based in Sri Lanka, much of his work has been built on the island, on the Indian Ocean rim. Channa has been in architectural education since 1992, teaching at both the City School of Architecture and the University of Moratuwa. He continues to be an examiner at both institutions.

The author of several books including Sri Lanka Style with Dominic Sansoni and the Colonial Period Furniture in the Geoffrey Bawa Collection, Channa has also written and edited extensively for magazines and journals including A+U Japan on the architecture of Sri Lanka on the 100th birth anniversary of Geoffrey Bawa. From 2015 to 2019, he held the post of Chairman of the Galle Heritage Foundation. He is a trustee of the Geoffrey Bawa and Lunuganga Trusts and a founding committee member of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art – Sri Lanka.

Top Titles

Sri Lanka Style: Tropical Design and Architecture (2006)

Colonial Period Furniture in the Geoffrey Bawa Collection (2012)

Speaker

Megan Dhakshini

Longlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2021 – for Softly We Fall, her second book of poems after Poison Apple (2018) – Megan Dhakshini is a Tamil creative multidisciplinary artist who works in advertising, creative design, voice acting, and singing. She counts as influences on her writing Sharanya Manivannan, Ocean Vuong, Vivimarie Vanderpoorten, Nayirrah Waheed, Charles Bukowski, Leonard Cohen and Anaïs Nin. She currently lives and works at ‘Navya Illam’ in Colombo – her home and haven full of blue doors, greenery, textured walls and spiders.

Top Titles

Poison Apple (2018)
Softly We Fall (2024)

Speaker

Tishani Doshi

Tishani Doshi publishes poetry, fiction and essays. For fifteen years she was the lead dancer of the Chandralekha company in Madras, and the body has been a central preoccupation in her work—a vehicle to explore gender, violence, sexuality and power, but also as an agent of renewal and transformation.

Since her debut, Countries of the Body, which won the Forward Prize for best first collection (2006), she has sought joineries between the lyric and the political. Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods (2017) headlined the All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House and was shortlisted for a Ted Hughes Award. Her novels, The Pleasure Seekers (2010) and Small Days and Nights (2019), have been shortlisted for the Hindu Fiction Prize, Tata Fiction Award and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. A God at the Door, her 2021 poetry collection, was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Top Titles

Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods (2017)

Small Days and Nights (2019)

A God at the Door (2021)

Speaker

Sachi Ediriweera

Sachi Ediriweera is an award-winning designer and graphic novelist. His graphic novel, Lionborn, was the first English language graphic novel to be produced by a Sri Lankan. Apart from his illustration work, which has been featured in numerous anthologies and online short comics, he has also built a career as a filmmaker. His work has been screened at international film festivals in the USA, Germany, South Korea and Australia.

Sachi divides his time between Colombo and Dubai where he also works as a senior creative for the advertising industry. He was named a ‘Creative to Watch’ by Campaign Middle East in 2021 and won the Young Lynx award in 2022.

Top Titles

Lionborn (2017)

Wayfinder (2020)

Enlightened (2023)

Speaker

Nizrana Farook

Nizrana Farook was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the beautiful landscapes of her home country find their way into the stories she writes. Her first book, The Girl Who Stole an Elephant, was the UK’s biggest selling children’s debut of the year. Featuring a feisty girl-thief named Chaya and a loveable elephant, it was longlisted for the Blue Peter Award and the Jhalak Prize. Three more books followed, all set in a fictional Sri Lanka. Nizrana has a master’s degree in writing for young people and lives with her family in Hertfordshire, UK.

Top Titles

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant (2020)

The Boy Who Met a Whale (2021)

The Boy Who Saved a Bear (2023)

Speaker

Sebastian Faulks

Sebastian Faulks is the author of many books and a frequent visitor to Sri Lanka, coming first in 1981 to play cricket with a team from the Guardian newspaper. His latest novel, The Seventh Son, is out in September 2023.

Other books include the French trilogy, a James Bond tribute called Devil May Care, Human Traces, Engleby and A Possible Life. He lives in London with his wife Veronica and their whippet.

Top Titles

Birdsong (1993)

Snow Country (2021)

The Seventh Son (2023)

Speaker

Peter Frankopan

Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University, where he is Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research; he is also UNESCO Professor of Silk Roads Studies at King’s College, Cambridge. His book, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World was described ‘not just the most important history book in years, but the most important in decades’ (Berliner Zeitung). It was named one of the Sunday Times Books of the Decade (2010-19). His next book, The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World was awarded the Carical Prize for Social Sciences in 2019. His most recent book is The Earth Transformed: An Untold History that looks at the past and present through the lens of the natural environment. ‘Humanity has transformed the Earth’ said the Financial Times; ‘Frankopan transforms our understanding of history.’

Top Titles

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (2015)

The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World (2018)

The Earth Transformed: An Untold History (2023)

Speaker

A.C. Grayling

A . C. Grayling CBE MA DPhil (Oxon) FRSA FRSL is the Founder and Principal of New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, and its Professor of Philosophy. He is also a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. He is the author of over thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas, and essays.

He has contributed as a columnist to leading newspapers in the UK, US and Australia, and to BBC radio and the World Service, for which he did the annual Exchanges at the Frontier series. He has also often appeared on television. A. C. Grayling has twice been a judge on the Booker Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Vice President of Humanists UK, Patron of the Defence Humanists, Honorary Associate of the Secular Society, and a Patron of Dignity in Dying.

Top Titles

The God Argument (2013)

The Frontiers of Knowledge (2021)

Philosophy and Life (2023)

Speaker

Fabienne Francotte

Fabienne Francotte (b. 1959, Belgium) exploits the possibilities of fabric, metal and clay in her engagement with the aftermath of trauma, abuse and migratory displacement. Her work often draws from her observations and experiences of people around her, including her own – transgressing the boundaries of culture and social and economic classes. She has also been writing since 1972. Journaling stories, memories, collecting feelings and souvenirs, recording a manifesto about a nomadic life and the many communities met on the way. Today she has 86 diaries.

Since shifting to Sri Lanka in 2016, she has concerned herself with a range of social issues present in Sri Lanka such as education, the business of sex, and religious tolerance. Her training as a calligrapher is visible in her drawings which exhibit a similar ritualistic execution, balance and controlled gestures and composition. Fabienne’s work has been presented at several solo and group exhibitions in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy and South Asia.

Speaker

Ella Frears

Originally from Cornwall and based in London, Ella Frears works at the intersection of poetry and visual art. Her collection Shine, Darling was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, and her collaborative installation The Six Pillars of Modernism was on show at Tate St Ives.

Ella has been selected for a number of residencies including with the Dartington Trust, Knole House in Kent (National Trust), Royal Holloway University’s physics department writing about the Cassini Spacecraft, and John Hansard Gallery in Southampton for which she wrote her experimental publication I AM THE MOTHER CAT, (Rough Trade Books). In 2023 she was the Creative Fellow for the environmental history department at Exeter University.

Ella hosts and co-hosts shows for Soho Radio and is currently the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Top Titles

Shine, Darling (2020)

I AM THE MOTHER CAT (2021)

Chef

Karan Gokani

Karan grew up in Mumbai and moved to England in 2005 to study law at the University of Cambridge. Even as a practising solicitor, Karan’s passion for food and hospitality never faded. In 2012, he left his legal career at a city law firm, travelling across India and Sri Lanka to immerse himself in the food and culture of both countries. The Sethi siblings and Karan opened Hoppers, a Sri Lankan and South Indian restaurant in Soho in 2015, followed by sites in Marylebone and King’s Cross.

Karan has written travel features and recipes on Sri Lanka and southern India for major national and international publications including The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, National Geographic and Condé Nast Traveller. His hotly anticipated debut cookbook was released in Autumn 2022, rapidly topping bestseller lists and telling a personal story of the inspiration behind Hoppers and the people and places that shaped it.

Top Titles

Hoppers (2022)

Speaker

Guy Gunaratne

Guy Gunaratne is a novelist, playwright and video artist. Their first novel In Our Mad and Furious City won the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Jhalak Prize in the UK and the Authors Club Award. It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize, as well as the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.

They served as Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge and on literary prize committees including the Goldsmiths Prize (2019) and the Rathbones Folio Prize (2023).

Top Titles

In Our Mad and Furious City (2018)

Mister, Mister (2023)

Speaker

Kanishka Gupta

Kanishka Gupta is a literary agent, writer and publishing commentator best known for his widely acclaimed series for Scroll.in, called Publishing and the Pandemic. He is the founder of Writer’s Side, the largest literary agency and consultancy in South Asia. Gupta has been credited for single-handedly popularising literary representation in the subcontinent.

He represents a range of highly accomplished debut authors as well as award-winning writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including the 2022 International Booker Prize winner Daisy Rockwell. His other prominent authors include the Booker-shortlisted Avni Doshi, the Windham-Campbell prize-winning novelist and poet Jerry Pinto, multi-award-winning novelist Anees Salim, Tamil writer B. Jeyamohan, Lindsay Pereira, Ranjit Hoskote, and Rijula Das among others. He has also worked closely with the 2022 Man Booker Prize-winning author Shehan Karunatilaka and represents his next two books in South Asia. Kanishka’s first novel was long-listed for the Asian Booker Prize in 2009 and published in 2010.

Top Titles

History of Hate (2010)

Speaker

Romesh Gunesekera

Romesh Gunesekera is internationally acclaimed for fiction that explores the key themes of our times – political, ecological, economic – through novels and stories. His fiction over the last thirty years include Reef, shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1994, and The Match, the ground-breaking cricket novel. Noontide Toll (2014) captures a vital moment in post-war Sri Lanka through linked stories, whilst Suncatcher (2019), is a story of divided loyalties and endangered friendship in the turbulent 1960s.

In 2023, Romesh was chair of judges for the Gratiaen Prize in Sri Lanka. He will be judging the International Booker Prize in 2024. He also chaired the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize as well as judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists 2013 and The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award among others. He has taught creative writing at universities and schools and has run workshops around the world, which have featured in the top ten lists of The UK Sunday Times and The Telegraph. He is also the co-author of the Writers’ & Artists’ Companion to Novel Writing.

Romesh was born in Colombo and lives in London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has received a National Honour in Sri Lanka.

Top Titles

Reef (1994)

Noontide Toll (2014)

Suncatcher (2019)

Speaker

Amanthi Harris

Amanthi Harris grew up in Colombo, Sri Lanka and in London, UK. She studied Fine Art at Central St Martins and has degrees in Law and Chemistry from Bristol University. Her novel Beautiful Place was published by Salt Publishing (UK) and Pan Macmillan India. Lantern Evening, a novella, won the Gatehouse Press New Fictions Prize 2016 and was published by Gatehouse Press. Her short stories have been published in magazines and anthologies including Best British Short Stories 2020 and broadcast on BBC Radio4. Her most recent short story for radio, Crinkum Crankum was broadcast in 2023 and is available to listen to online at the BBC website. She currently lives in the mountains of southern Spain.

Top Titles

Lantern Evening (2016)

Beautiful Place (2019)

Speaker

Will Harris

Will Harris is a London-based writer. He is the author of the poetry books RENDANG (2020) and Brother Poem (2023), both published by Granta in the UK and by Wesleyan University Press in the US. He has been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

He helps facilitate the Southbank New Poets Collective with Vanessa Kisuule, and co-translated Habib Tengour’s Consolatio with Delaina Haslam in 2022. He currently works in extra-care homes and is a Visiting Poetry Fellow at UEA working towards a community-led archive of poets’ work.

Top Titles

Mixed-Race Superman (2018)

Rendang (2020)

Brother Poem (2023)

Speaker

Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Kiran Millwood Hargrave (FRSL) is an internationally bestselling, award-winning novelist for children and adults. Her children’s books include The Girl of Ink & Stars, Julia and the Shark, and most recently the first in her major new The Geomancer Trilogy, In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen. Her fiction for adults, The Mercies and The Dance Tree, have won international accolades such as the Prix Rive Gauche, a Betty Trask Award and an NYT Notable Book. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages, and optioned for stage and screen. She lives in Oxford with her husband, artist Tom de Freston, their daughter, and two cats.

Top Titles

The Girl of Ink & Stars (2016)

The Mercies (2022)

In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen (2023)

Speaker

Anthony Horowitz

Anthony is a born polymath; juggling writing books, TV series, films, plays and journalism. Anthony has written over 50 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, which is estimated to have sold 21 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a hugely successful television series.

He is also an acclaimed writer for adults. He was commissioned to write two new Sherlock Holmes novels, and three continuation novels for James Bond. Anthony’s award-winning novel Magpie Murders was serialised on BritBox and televised on the BBC in 2023. The sequel, Moonflower Murders, began filming in 2023. His new series, featuring Detective Hawthorne and a sidekick called Anthony Horowitz, includes five books so far.

Anthony is responsible for creating some of the UK’s most beloved television series including Midsomer Murders and Foyle’s War, the Winner of the Lew Grade Audience award for BAFTA. Anthony was awarded a CBE in 2022 for his services to literature.

Top Titles

With a Mind to Kill (2022 – final James Bond novel)

Nightshade: Revenge (2023 – the latest in the Alex Rider series)

Close to Death (2023 – the latest in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series)

Speaker

Ameena Hussein

Ameena Hussein is a Sri Lankan author and co-founder of the Perera-Hussein Publishing House. Her non-fiction book Chasing Tall Tales and Mystics: Ibn Battuta in Sri Lanka won the State Literary Prize for Humanities, 2020 and was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize. Her novel The Moon in the Water was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Award and the Dublin IMPAC. She has also written two award-winning collections of short stories, Fifteen and Zillij, as well as three children’s books. Ameena was one of the judges for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Top Titles

Fifteen (1999)

The Moon in the Water (2009)

Chasing Tall Tales and Mystics: Ibn Battuta in Sri Lanka (2020)

Speaker

Amanda Jayatissa

Amanda Jayatissa loves to read disturbing books with shocking plot twists, so it seemed logical to her that she should attempt to write disturbing books with shocking plot twists. She is one of the first Sri Lankan women to secure an international book contract.

Her first book, a self-published, speculative fiction thriller, The Other One, won the GLF Award for an English Publication in 2017. Her first traditionally published psychological suspense novel, My Sweet Girl, published by Berkley, Penguin Random House, won Best Debut Novel at the International Thriller Writers awards in 2022. You’re Invited, Amanda’s second novel, was selected as a Book of The Month pick in July 2022 and was featured on The Today Show. Her latest novel, Island Witch, is inspired by Sri Lankan folklore and will be released in February 2024.

Top Titles

My Sweet Girl (2021)

You’re Invited (2022)

Island Witch (2024)

Speaker

Manu Joseph

Manu Joseph is an Indian novelist, journalist and screenwriter. He is the author of three novels, including The Illicit Happiness of Other People. His novels have been widely translated. He is the winner of The Hindu Literature Prize and the American Pen Open Book Award, among other honours. His debut novel, Serious Men has been adapted for film. He is also the creator of the Netflix comedy, Decoupled. As editor-in-chief of the Indian newsweekly OPEN, he ran what is widely known in India as ‘The Radia Tapes’ which exposed how corporate lobbying works on influential journalists. A popular columnist, he used to write the ‘Letter from India’ column for the international edition of The New York Times.

Top Titles

Serious Men (2010)

The Illicit Happiness of Other People (2012)

Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous (2017)

Speaker

Sunela Jayewardene

Sunela Jayewardene is recognized as ‘Sri Lanka’s leading environmental architect’ (Time, March 2007; India Today, 2008). Her award-winning projects include, Jetwing Vil Uyana, Colombo Court, Rainforest Ecolodge, Jetwing Kaduruketha, Camellia Hills and several private homes in Sri Lanka and India. Inspired by Sri Lanka’s pre-colonial cultural traditions, her primary design impulse has been serious concern for the ecology of site and sustainability of human habitats. Her work has been recognized internationally and Echelon listed her amongst ‘50 Most Powerful Women in Sri Lanka’, 2013 & 2014. Sunela was the founder and first Chairperson of the Federation of Environmental Organizations (FEOSL) and is an Advisor to the GOSL.

She is also the author of The Line of Lanka – Myths and Legends of an Island and is currently writing Ravana’s Lanka for Penguin India. Now retired from architecture, Sunela lives at Dunvila, her rewilded forest on the border of Wasgomuva National Park.

Top Titles

The Line of Lanka: Myths and Memories of an Island (2017)

Speaker

Chamintha Jayasinghe

Chamintha helms Ayu in the Wild, a women-led destination management company based in Sri Lanka and committed to curating meaningful, luxury journeys. Experienced in development finance and financial management of development projects that worked with rural communities in Sri Lanka, she brings her years of corporate experience, miles of travel into the deepest corners of the island and a deep love for impactful tourism to Ayu in the Wild’s brand of low-footfall, bespoke travel.

Chamintha strongly believes that luxury travel must contribute towards inclusive development in Sri Lanka. Ayu in the Wild has been curating highly personalised and meticulously researched experiential trips with a positive impact since 2012. It is also Sri Lanka’s only Travel Partner of The Long Run, a community that ensures travel experiences have a positive impact, and that conservation is both socially and financially sustainable.

Speaker

Balli Jaswal

Balli Kaur Jaswal is the author of five novels, including the internationally bestselling Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows (2017). She was named a Best Young Australian Novelist by the Sydney Morning Herald and shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. Jaswal’s short stories and essays have appeared in The UK Sunday Express, Cosmopolitan Magazine, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, and Best Australian Short Stories. A former writing fellow at the University of East Anglia, she has taught creative writing at Yale-NUS College and Nanyang Technological University, where she completed her Ph.D. in South Asian diaspora writing.

Top Titles

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows (2017)

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters (2019)

Now You See Us (2023)

Speaker

Shehan Karunatilaka

Shehan Karunatilaka emerged on to the global literary stage in 2011, when he won the Commonwealth Book Prize, the DSL and Gratiaen Prize for his debut novel, Chinaman. The book was declared the second-best cricket book of all time by Wisden.

Born in  Galle, Sri Lanka, in 1975, Karunatilaka grew up in Colombo, studied in New Zealand and has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam and Singapore. He currently lives in Sri Lanka. His songs, scripts and stories have been published in Rolling Stone, GQ and National Geographic. He has worked as an advertising copywriter and played guitar in a band called Independent Square.

His second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, was announced as the winner of the Booker Prize 2022 in London.

Top Titles

Chinaman (2010)

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022)

The Birth Lottery & Other Surprises (2022)

Speaker

Radha Kumar

Radha Kumar is a former Director General of the Delhi Policy Group and a specialist on ethnic conflicts, peace and security. Previously Director of the Mandela Centre for Peace at Jamia Millia Islamia University, she developed the first MA in Peace and Conflict Studies in India. Dr Kumar has held a number of senior positions at institutions including Columbia University, the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly in Prague and the UN, where she served as chair of the United Nations University Council.

She is currently vice-chair for SIPRI and co-chair of the Forum for Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir. Her book, Paradise at War: A Political History of Kashmir (2018) was named “the one book to read on Kashmir” by The Telegraph India. A frequent op-ed contributor to the Hindu and the Indian Express, she has been honoured with fellowships at the Rockefeller Foundation and the SSRC in New York, as well as the Institute for Development Studies in Bangalore.

Top Titles

Paradise at War: A Political History of Kashmir (2018)

A Gender Atlas of India (with Karthika Sudhir and Marcel Korff, Sage: 2018)

The Republic Relearned: A Brief History of Indian Democracy in Eight Chapters (2024)

Speaker

Christina Lamb

Chief Foreign Correspondent at The Sunday Times, Christina Lamb is a decorated journalist. Her honours included the Prix Bayeux, Europe’s foremost prize for war correspondents, Amnesty International’s Outstanding Impact Award, and the prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Journalism Award, given by the Society of Editors in 2022.

She is the author of ten books, including the bestselling I am Malala, co-written with Malala Yousafzai, and The Girl from Aleppo, with Nujeen Mustafa. Our Bodies, Their Battlefields, about sexual violence in conflict, won the first Pilecki Institute award for war reporting. It was described by Antony Beevor as “the most powerful book” he had ever read.

She is a Global Champion for UN Education Cannot Wait, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an Honorary Fellow of University College Oxford, an International Board member of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, an Associate of the Imperial War Museum, and was made an OBE by the Queen in 2013.

Top Titles

The Girl from Aleppo with Nujeen Mustafa (2016)

Our Bodies, Their Battlefields: What War Does to Women (2020)

The Prince Rupert Hotel for the Homeless (2022)

Chef

Jeremy Lee

Jeremy Lee joined the Hart brothers at Soho’s Quo Vadis in early 2012, becoming Chef Proprietor of the restaurant. Part of the resurgence of modern British cooking, he had previously manned the stoves of Blueprint Café in the Design Museum in London. Originally from Dundee, Scotland, Jeremy comes from a family where home cooking of a high order was daily fare. His parents and grandmother taught him the mysteries of finding good produce through good shopping. Jeremy applies this to the menus at Quo Vadis, where the cooking is bright, fresh and quintessentially British in a manner most modern.

In 2012, Jeremy and Quo Vadis won the Catey for Best Restaurant Menu of the Year; in 2013 they won the Tatler Award for Best Kitchen. Jeremy was listed in The Evening Standard’s “The Progress 1000: London’s most influential people – Tastemakers: Eat & Drink” in 2018. He writes for numerous newspapers and has appeared on television.

Top Titles

Cooking: Simply and Well for One or Many (2022)

Speaker

Andrew Lownie

Andrew Lownie was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was Dunster History Prizeman and President of the Union, before taking his Masters and doctorate at Edinburgh University. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he later returned to Cambridge as a visiting fellow at Churchill College.

He has been a bookseller, publisher and journalist, writing for The Times, Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Spectator and Guardian, and since 1988 has run his own literary agency specialising in history and biography. He is President of the Biographers Club, sits on the board of Biographers International Organisation and is a Trustee of the Campaign for Freedom of Information.

His books include a prize-winning biography of the spy Guy Burgess and the top-ten Sunday Times bestsellers The Mountbattens and Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. His next book is on the Duke & Duchess of York.

Top Titles

Stalin’s Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring (2016)

The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves (2019)

Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (2021)

Speaker

Isurinie Anuradha Mallawaarachchi

Isurinie Anuradha Mallawaarachchi is a lecturer, attorney-at-law and bilingual poet. Isurinie’s work touches on love, heartbreak, sex and self exploration. Her first collection of poetry, Flowers Teach Me to Let Go, was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2023.

Top Titles

Flowers Teach Me to Let Go (2022)

Speaker

Neloufer de Mel

Neloufer de Mel is Chair Professor of English at the Department of English, University of Colombo. Specialising in postcolonial literature, gender, and performance studies, she is the author of two monographs (Women and the Nation’s Narrative and Militarizing Sri Lanka), editor of several academic volumes, and has had essays published in renowned academic journals. She is the chairperson of the Gratiaen Trust, founded by the Canadian-Sri Lankan author Michael Ondaatje to promote Sri Lankan creative writing in English and translations of Sinhala and Tamil literature into English. Neloufer has held several distinguished research fellowships at international universities and academic institutes including Yale, the Universities of Zurich and New York, and the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, and continues to be an avid reader and literary, film and theatre critic.

Top Titles

Women and the Nation’s Narrative (2001)
Militarizing Sri Lanka (2007)

Speaker

Nayomi Munaweera

Nayomi Munaweera is the award-winning author of the novels Island of a Thousand Mirrors and What Lies Between Us. Her debut novel was shortlisted for the DSC Prize and won the Commonwealth Prize for the Asian Region. Her second book won the Sri Lankan National Book Prize and was shortlisted for the California Book Award. She has been named one of “Twelve Women of Color Writers You Need to Know” by Bustle Magazine and “One of the Asian American Women Writers Who are Going to Change the World” by Electric Literature. The Huffington Post raved, “Munaweera’s prose is visceral and indelible, devastatingly beautiful-reminiscent of the glorious writings of Louise Erdrich, Amy Tan and Alice Walker, who also find ways to truth-tell through fiction.”

Her short fiction and non-fiction are also widely published. She has been honoured as a KQED Woman to Watch and has been written up in Vogue India. She has presented in panels and conferences around the world including at the Jaipur Literary Festival, Mumbai Literary Festival, Galle Literary Festival, Bay Area Book Festival, LitQuake and AWP. Her writing workshops for women and non-binary folks – which she calls her Writing Covens – have been called transformative and liberating by participants.

Top Titles

Island of a Thousand Mirrors (2012)

What Lies Between Us (2016)

Speaker

Moni Mohsin

Moni Mohsin was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. Now based in London, she is a freelance journalist and author of three novels, the prize winning The End of Innocence, Tender Hooks and The Impeccable Integrity of Ruby R. Her bestselling collection of satirical columns, The Diary of a Social Butterfly, The Return of the Butterfly and Between You, Me and the Four Walls, are based on her long running column for The Friday Times.

Top Titles

The Diary of a Social Butterfly (2008)

The Impeccable Integrity of Ruby R. (2020)

Between You, Me and the Four Walls (2023)

Speaker

Nujeen Mustafa

Nujeen Mustafa (Arabic: نوجين مصطفى Nūjjayn Muṣṭafā; also transliterated Noujain Mustaffa) is a Kurdish Syrian refugee and activist with cerebral palsy. She was raised in Aleppo, Syria, and gained attention after travelling 3,500 miles (5,600 km) by wheelchair, fleeing conflict in the Syrian Civil War, before arriving and resettling in Germany. She was listed as one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2018, and her story was featured on the television show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. In 2019 she became the first disabled person to brief the United Nations Security Council, and was the recipient of the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism from Human Rights Watch.

Top Titles

The Girl from Aleppo with Christina Lamb (2016)

Speaker

Janice Pariat

Janice Pariat is the author of Boats on Land: A Collection of Short Stories and Seahorse: A Novel. She was awarded the Young Writer Award from the Sahitya Akademi and the Crossword Book Award for Fiction in 2013. Her bestselling novella The Nine Chambered-Heart was published in ten languages including Italian, Spanish, French, and German.

She studied English Literature at St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and History of Art at SOAS, London. Her work—including art reviews, book reviews, fiction and poetry—has featured in a wide selection of national publications. In 2014, she was the Charles Wallace Creative Writing Fellow at the University of Kent, and a Writer in Residence at the TOJI Residency in South Korea in 2019.

Her novel Everything the Light Touches won the AutHer Award for Best Fiction in 2023, and was listed in The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2022. She lives between Shillong and New Delhi with a cat of many names.

Top Titles

Boats on Land: A Collection of Short Stories (2012)

The Nine Chambered-Heart (2017)

Everything the Light Touches (2022)

Speaker

Johann Peiris

Johann Peiris is a sociologist, researcher and musician. He received his BA from Ithaca College and MA in Sociology of Education from New York University. Equipped with 8 years of involvement with history-related programmes and initiatives, he hopes to continue being actively engaged in platforms that allow critical dialogue on history and memory. In 2020, he received a fellowship from the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability (AHDA) hosted by Columbia University. He currently oversees the work areas of education at the Collective for Historical Dialogue and Memory (CHDM). In addition to his work on history, he is a frequent performer with the Chamber Music Society of Colombo.

Speaker

Lahiru Perera

Co-Founder and Head of Food Operations at Smoke & Bitters, Lahiru has always been focused on creating joyful experiences for people. Along with a serious passion for food, drinks and music, this has made him a perfect fit for the hospitality business. Lahiru took the first steps towards this in 2014, founding Zephyr, which became a hugely successful chain of bar & restaurants in Sri Lanka. Now at the helm of Smoke and Bitters’ kitchen, Lahiru works with woodfire to smoke or chargrill dishes, using Sri Lankan ingredients to create unique flavours inspired by global cultures.

Lahiru attended the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, where he developed his passion for using traditional cooking methods and forgotten skills. Learning from some of the best in the industry further empowered Lahiru to source authentic ingredients and bring Sri Lankan flavours and cooking styles to the world.

Speaker

Sam Perera

Sam Perera is Managing Partner and co-founder of the small, independent, Colombo-based press Perera Hussein Publishing House, since 2003. He lived and worked in the US and Switzerland for many years before returning to Sri Lanka to follow his dream of showcasing Sri Lankan writing in English to the world. He has published several prize-winning fiction and non-fiction books, many by first-time authors. He believes in the balance of nature and work and has spent the last eighteen years re-greening a 20 acre property in Puttalam, Sri Lanka’s semi-arid zone.

Speaker

Chalana Perera

Chalana is the founder of RETRACETM Hospitality, a Sri Lanka-based client advisory service specialising in regenerative tourism development and hospitality asset management. Chalana advises a range of private-sector and public-funded hospitality and tourism projects.

He began his career in Europe, developing hotels for institutional investors, a private equity fund, and international brands including award-winning citizenM Hotels. A graduate of Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, Switzerland, and a certified Climate Reality Leader, Chalana was Sri Lanka’s first signatory to Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency and the Future of Tourism Coalition.

As a member of the Hospitality of the Future Think Tank, Chalana was a contributing author to the 2023 Routledge textbook Critical Questions in Sustainability and Hospitality. He sits on the Hospitality Net World Panel on Sustainability and has addressed tourism industry fora including MIPIM (France) ITB (Germany), the Young Hoteliers Summit (Switzerland), and various audiences in Sri Lanka.

Speaker

DBC Pierre

DBC Pierre was born in 1961 in Reynella, Australia. He was brought up in Mexico and the UK, and now lives in Ireland. He previously worked as a designer and an internationally published cartoonist, but now devotes himself to writing. His debut novel, Vernon God Little (2003) – a dark satire set in the aftermath of a Texas high school massacre – was the winner of the 2003 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

His second novel, Ludmila’s Broken English, was published in 2006. He has since published Lights Out in Wonderland (2010); Breakfast with the Borgias (2014); as well as Petit Mal (2013), a selection of short fiction and non-fiction; and Release the Bats (2016), which explores the art and process of storytelling, amongst other novels.

Top Titles

Vernon God Little (2003)

Meanwhile in Dopamine City (2020)

Big Snake Little Snake: An Inquiry into Risk (2022)

Speaker

Sumith Pilapitiya

Sumith Pilapitiya undertook his university education in the US, where he obtained his Ph.D in Environmental Sciences from Rutgers University in New Jersey. He was a Lead Environmental Specialist for the South Asia Environment and Natural Resources Unit of the World Bank, working on environmental and wildlife conservation projects in South and East Asia as well as in Africa. He was also the Director General of Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation for a brief period.

Sumith is South Asia’s representative on the Technical Advisory Group of the Monitoring of the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme and a member of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group. He is presently the Chairman of the Presidential Committee appointed to “facilitate, oversee and monitor” the implementation of the National Action Plan for Human Elephant Conflict Mitigation. His personal research interests centre upon elephant conservation and he is involved in interpreting the visual and tactile communications of elephants.

Speaker

Vidura Bandara Rajapaksa

Vidura BR is a Sri Lankan comedian, writer, and director based in London, via Malaysia and Berlin. His dead-pan style puts audiences at ease while challenging conventional wisdom with a unique tone that is often irreverent, at times poignant, and always hysterical.

His self directed, produced, written, and performed debut show Monsoon Season garnered much online attention and critical acclaim, and was selected for syndication on Amazon Prime Video following its initial release. He is currently touring his new hour show French Kiss Tunnel across multiple countries through 2024.

Speaker

Anya Ratnayaka

Anya is a PhD Candidate at The University of Queensland, with a strong interest in Sri Lankan wildlife and the conservation of urban mesocarnivores. She founded the Urban Fishing Cat Conservation Project in 2013, and co-founded the non-profit Small Cat Advocacy & Research in 2017. She studies the ecology and behaviour of the world’s only known hyper-urban population of fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus), found in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Anya and her team work closely with the Department of Wildlife Conservation, the Sri Lanka Land Development Corporation, and the Urban Development Authority to understand how to better protect fishing cats and their urban habitats.

Anya is also a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission: Cat Specialist Group, a Wildlife Conservation Network Scholar, a Re:wild Associate Scientist, and a member of the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance – a collective of experts working on the species across its global range in South and Southeast Asia.

Speaker

Chiranthi Rajapakse

Chiranthi Rajapakse’s second collection of short stories, Keeping Time and Other Stories was selected as joint winner of the 2022 (30th) Gratiaen Prize. Her first book, Names and Numbers, was also shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2017. Her writing has been published by New Ceylon Writing, City (a quarterly journal of South Asian literature), Wachana, Samyuktha Fiction and Fairlight Shorts. Chiranthi has degrees in Law and Dentistry and has worked as a journalist, lecturer, feature writer and legal researcher. She now works as a research manager with LIRNEasia.

Top Titles

Names and Numbers (2017)

Keeping Time and Other Stories (2022)

Speaker

Marguerite Richards

Marguerite Richards is an American writer and book editor, focusing on memoir and diverse voices. She holds degrees in literature and translation, has taught in France and Chile, and fell in love with magazine publishing in New York. Her articles and essays have been published in various places, but she has found her calling with books. She lives in Sri Lanka with her husband and two sons.

Her book, The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human, is a collection of personal stories by people you wouldn’t ordinarily get to meet, living all over the world. The book was originally published by Penguin SEA in 2019, and an updated second edition is due to be released in early 2024.

Top Titles

The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human (2019)

Speaker

Jacqueline Samarasinghe

Born in Switzerland and raised in Colombo, Jacqueline has always aspired to have a creative space that people could enjoy and make memories in. That’s how KIKU came to be, a venture inspired by her travels and her work. After completing her degree in Economics, Jacqueline settled in the sunny city of Colombo, working as an Events Coordinator for Shirohana Flowers. Her creativity still needed another outlet and this led to the conceptualisation and development of KIKU and its menu. Going through that process made her realise how much she loved this type of work, and how much more she could learn about it. The Japanese influence on KIKU stems from the owners of Shirohana, who have a strong connection to Japan’s food and culture. While Chef Lakna couldn’t recreate traditional Japanese menus and recipes, they made them their own!

Speaker

Simon Schama

Sir Simon Schama’s award-winning books, which have been translated into twenty-three languages, include The Embarrassment of Riches, Citizens, Landscape and Memory, Rembrandt’s Eyes, A History of Britain, The Power of Art, Rough Crossings, The American Future, The Face of Britain and The Story of the Jews. His art columns for the New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for criticism and his journalism has appeared regularly in the Guardian and the Financial Times, where he is Contributing Editor. He has written and presented more than fifty films for the BBC on subjects as diverse as Tolstoy and American politics, and he co-presented the landmark series on the history of world art, Civilisations. Most recently, his History of Now series aired on BBC2 in November–December 2022. Schama lives in New York and is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University. Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations is his twentieth book.

Top Titles

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (1989)

The Power of Art (2006)

Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations (2023)

Speaker

Randhula de Silva

Randhula de Silva is the Founder and CEO of GoodLife X Pvt Ltd, a catalyst for environmentally and socially conscious entrepreneurs and innovators in Sri Lanka. She is an Independent Director of Trace Expert City and a Council Member of the National Innovation Agency. She advocates for social transformation through culture and creativity, as a co-founder of Radical Center, True Patriot movement, and executive producer of Sri Lankan feature films, protest music and adult novellas.

She is a Chevening Research, Innovation, Science, and Leadership Fellow of the University of Oxford and was awarded as the ‘Game Changer of the Year’ at the Women in Management – Sri Lanka (WIM) top 50 Professional and Career awards in 2021. Previously she was the CEO of Hatch Works, Chief Disrupter at GIZ Sri Lanka, and Head of Information Intelligence at Verite Research. Randhula holds a Masters in Regional and Development Planning and a BBA in Business Economics from the University of Colombo.

Speaker

Sujit Sivasundaram

Sujit Sivasundaram is Professor of World History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow in History at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. His recent book Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire won the British Academy Book Prize and was co-winner of the Jerry Bentley Book Prize for World History. It was described as “a riot of ingenuity; a truly powerful and new history of revolutions and empires.” He is also author of Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka and the Bounds of an Indian Ocean Colony, which was reviewed as a “seminal” book on the history of Sri Lanka: “it questions received wisdom, entrenched narratives and the way we think about our country and ourselves.” Sujit sits on the editorial boards of major research journals in history and was recently elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

Top Titles

Nature and the Godly Empire: Science and Evangelical Mission in the Pacific, 1795-1850 (2005)

Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka and the Bounds of an Indian Ocean Colony (2013)

Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire (2020)

Chef

Cynthia Shanmugalingam

Cynthia Shanmugalingam is a British-Sri Lankan Tamil cook who was born in England, visiting Sri Lanka in her childhood holidays and eating dishes adapted by her immigrant family at home. She is the author of Rambutan: Recipes from Sri Lanka (Bloomsbury UK, 2022), which won the Fortnum and Mason’s Best Debut Cookery Book 2023, was named as a best cookbook of the year by The New York Times, LA Times, Chrissy Teigen, and Bon Appétit. She is the chef-proprietor of the restaurant Rambutan, which opened in 2023 and was hailed as “dazzling” by The Financial Times, British Vogue and London’s Evening Standard. Her cooking has a special focus on Jaffna, where her family comes from, and has been featured in The Guardian, The BBC, The Times and We Present.

Top Titles

Rambutan: Recipes from Sri Lanka (2022)

Speaker

Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith CBE was Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh before he became a full-time author. His various series of books have been translated into over 46 languages and have sold more than 30 million copies across the world. These include The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, set in Botswana, and the 44 Scotland Street and Isabel Dalhousie novels, both set in Edinburgh. Alexander is the co-founder of an amateur orchestra called ‘The Really Terrible Orchestra’, in which he plays the bassoon.

Top Titles

The Sweet Remnants of Summer (2022) – the latest in the Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries series

From a Far and Lovely Country (Sept 2023) – the latest in the The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series

The Stellar Debut of Galactica MacFee (Nov 2023) – the latest in the 44 Scotland Street series

Speaker

Chhimi Tenduf-La

Chhimi Tenduf-La is the author of 3 novels, The Amazing Racist, Panther and Loyal Stalkers. He is based in Sri Lanka, where he has lived, on and off, for much of his life. His fourth book, a psychological thriller, may come out soon.

Top Titles

The Amazing Racist (2015)

Panther (2015)

Loyal Stalkers (2017)

Speaker

Irushi Tennekoon

Irushi is a Colomb0-based artist and animator, adding to a global discourse on storytelling through animation by highlighting everyday stories from Sri Lanka and South Asia. She is best known for her award-winning series of films, Animate Her (2019-2022), based on the lives of seven exceptional Sri Lankan women. Irushi taught undergraduate English for almost a decade before pursuing her studio-based creative practice full time. She recently completed her Master’s in Animation at the Royal College of Art in London, as a Chevening Scholar.

Irushi has received three Best Animated Short Film awards and two Green Awards at the annual Agenda14 Short Film Festival in Colombo. Her short film, Thaji Dias on Traditional Dance, received the Best National Short Film award at the 2022 Jaffna International Cinema Festival. Her films have been screened widely, including at the Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi, the MMCA in Colombo, the Tricky Women International Animation Festival in Vienna, and the Brighton International Animation Festival.

Top Titles

’83 – A Very Short Film (2016)

Animate Her (2019-22 – short film series)

is this an architectural documentary? (2023)

Speaker

Jagath Weerasinghe

Jagath Weerasinghe, born in 1954, is a Sri Lankan contemporary artist and archaeologist. A significant driving force in the development of Sri Lankan art since the early 1990s, he is presently the Emeritus Professor of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours in Painting from the Institute of Aesthetic Studies at the University of Kelaniya, and later a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the American University, Washington, D.C in 1991. Jagath was also the 2017 recipient of the Arts & Literary Arts Resident Fellowship at the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller Foundation. He famously coined the phrase ‘90s Art Trend’, recognising the need for a framework to describe the work of fellow Sri Lankan artists at the time. This concept has, in turn, acted as a catalyst for theoretical studies into the politically conscious contemporary art of 1990s Sri Lanka.

Speaker

Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne

Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne has broken internationally significant wildlife stories, including recognising Sri Lanka as the best place in the world for seeing blue whales, the site of the world’s largest recurring gathering of wild elephants and a key destination for leopard safaris.

Gehan’s efforts have made him a wildlife celebrity in Sri Lanka, with over 25 published books and 400 articles. He is amongst a handful of field naturalists to write and photograph internationally-published books and field guides spanning terrestrial mammals, marine mammals, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, wild flowers and trees.

In the words of British wildlife presenter Bill Oddie, no single individual has done so much to raise the profile of a country for its wildlife. Gehan is the Chair of the London Bird Club and a Trustee of the British Ornithologists’ Club. Back in London after ten years in Sri Lanka, he continues to promote the island as one of the world’s best all-round wildlife destinations.

Top Titles

Wild Sri Lanka (2013)

A Photographic Field Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka (2017)

A Naturalist’s Guide to the Trees of Sri Lanka (2020)

Speaker

Anoma Wijewardene

Anoma has exhibited internationally with solo shows in London, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, Dubai and New Delhi. She represented South Asia at Sotheby’s Hong Kong exhibition of women artists of the silk route and is the first solo Sri Lankan artist to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. An alumna of Central Saint Martins London, Anoma has been a visiting lecturer at CSM and several UK art colleges. Her early design work had a global clientele, including Chanel, Ralph Lauren and Yves St Laurent, and was on the cover of British Vogue. Anoma’s current artwork spans painting, mixed media, sculpture, video and performance. She often collaborates with poets, writers, scientists, composers and political advisors to create multimedia installations on the environment and unity.

The monograph Anoma is the definitive book on the artist Anoma Wijewardene’s oeuvre and contains insightful essays from critics and intellectuals, with each writer positing a very different perspective. Inclusive of 200 illustrations of the paintings, it affords a fascinating exploration of the creative process and an artist’s journey. The art encapsulates Anoma’s passion for sustainability and regeneration, inclusion and co-existence.

Top Titles

ANOMA (2019)

Speaker

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne is an author, data scientist and general tinkerer from Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Watchdog, a research collective that works on fact checking, investigative journalism and community tech.

His fiction includes novels like Numbercaste, The Inhuman Race, The Wretched and the Damned, and The Salvage Crew. His stories have won the Gratiaen award, been nominated for the Nebula and Independent Games Festival awards, appeared in venues like Wired, ForeignPolicy and Slate, and been Washington Post and Audible bestsellers. He has, somewhat unfortunately, also shown up on Forbes‘ 30 Under 30. He has several cats who care about none of these things, and spends most of his time on his homestead in Kandy, learning the care and feeding of potato plants.

Top Titles

Numbercaste (2017)

The Salvage Crew (2020)

The Wretched and the Damned (to be published)

Moderators

Speaker

Artika Bakshi

An avid reader, a teacher, a book critic, a passionate writer, but most importantly a mother, Artika Aurora Bakshi lives in a world of words. Her books, My Little Sikh Handbook, My Little Sikh Handbook 2: Ardas, and My Little Sikh Handbook: Travel Journal, My Little Sikh Handbook: The Mighty Sikh Empire, were well-received. She is currently working on her fifth book .

Artika’s first story, All She Had Left, was published online by Story Mirror, whilst Hold On To Me, a collection of her short stories, is available online as an ebook. Artika’s quotes are on Instagram as Soul_Nightingale_Artika and on Facebook as Soul Nightingale by Artika Aurora Bakshi. Artika contributes to various publications, and is on the editorial panel of Nishaan.

Top Titles

My Little Sikh Handbook (2018)

My Little Sikh Handbook 2: Ardas (2019)

Hold On To Me (2019)

Andrew Fidel Fernando

Andrew Fidel Fernando is an award-winning author and journalist based in Colombo. He writes on the various subjects he nerds out on: cricket, history, politics, food, and travel. His book Upon a Sleepless Isle is the only non-fiction title ever to win the Gratiaen Prize, for 2019. In addition to being a senior writer for ESPNcricinfo, Fidel has produced long-form features, satire, op-eds and reportage for many international publications, including The Guardian, The Hindu, BBC, FiftyTwo and Indian Express.

When he’s not writing, he’s often freediving, cooking, making mayhem with his two young boys, or failing abysmally at surfing.

Top Titles

Upon a Sleepless Isle (2019)

Speaker

Niki Gomez

Niki Gomez believes business can be made more beautiful if the triple bottom line is respected – that’s people, planet and profit. She is an MIT alum who grew up between Sri Lanka and the UK. Niki is Marketing Director at I was a Sari, a social business based between Mumbai and Milan. Founded in 2016 by her husband Stefano, Italian entrepreneur turned change-maker, I was a Sari believes in the idea of giving second chances to unskilled women in India who transform into financially independent textile artisans. Their raw materials, pre-loved saris equally transform – into new clothing and accessories, designed with a zero-waste policy. Niki previously headed Marketing at MAS, one of Sri Lanka’s leading apparel companies.

Niki is currently based in Mumbai, where she divides her time between working at a clinic as a Functional Medicine Health Coach, I was a Sari and being mother to 5 year old Franka.

Moderator

Chanchala Gunewardena

Chanchala Gunewardena is co-founder of the upcoming Matara Festival for the Arts (MFA) – a celebration of contemporary arts & music and social enterprise that follows the weekend after GLF. MFA builds on the foundations of her work relaunching the Freedom Hub Matara which supports creative enterprise programming for youth. She is also the founder of the Washington Post featured agri-food startup Kimbula Kitchen.

She has also worked as a Creative and PR specialist in ‘Goodvocacy’ with NGage Strategic Alliance & has represented Sri Lanka at the Young Lions at the Cannes Festival of Creativity (France) & at the Spikes Asia Festival (Singapore). Before returning to Sri Lanka, Chanchala served as the Director of Career Development at the women’s leadership & tertiary education initiative – the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh, and with Amnesty International & WITNESS in New York City.

Moderator

Kalpanee Gunawardana

Kalpanee Gunawardana possesses a background in law. She is a professional model, actress, media and event solution provider, consultant, and advocate for diverse media representation and creation.

Moderator

Sandra Hill

Born and educated in London, Sandra Hill has spent her long career as designer, creative director, advisor and mentor, immersed in the world of fashion. Being the head designer for a number of leading international fashion brands – from Paul Smith to Ralph Lauren – has seen her based in Italy, London, New York & Hong Kong. She has continually studied history to inform her work. Currently living in Galle, (indulging in) her innate curiosity for design, culture, travel and adventure, and a self- accepted ‘unhealthy obsession with books’, she is a bibliophile with a constant eagerness to learn.

Speaker

Azara Jaleel

Azara Jaleel is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of ARTRA Magazine, a Sri Lankan Modern & Contemporary Art Magazine established in 2012. Having published over 65 editions, she has interviewed more than 1000 art personalities including the late Laki Senanayake, Barbara Sansoni and Ena de Silva. She has worked with art academics, critics, and historians of local and international repute including C. Anjalendran, David Robson, Ismeth Raheem, the late Prof. Qadri Ismail in building an archive of art essays, interviews and critiques through the years. In her capacity as ARTRA Director, she has partnered with established art galleries, festivals, foundations, embassies and banks in increasing the consumption of Sri Lankan Modern & Contemporary Art. Azara received her BA (Hons.) in English from the Department of English, University of Colombo and completed Postgraduate Studies & Academic Courses in International Studies, Marketing & Communications from BCIS (SL), CIM (UK) and University of Virginia (USA).

Moderator

Thirangie Jayatilake

Thirangie Jayatilake is a Sri Lankan writer, editor, and storyteller. She has an undergraduate degree in Literature and Creative Writing from New York University and a postgraduate degree in Creative Writing, Publishing, and Editing from the University of Melbourne. She has served as an editor at Antithesis Journal, Grattan Street Press, Postscript Magazine, Revarena Ediciones, The Gazelle, Airport Street, and Perera-Hussein Publishing House. Her passion for global and diverse literature has led her to volunteer for Asymptote Journal and she is currently the Inclusion and Accessibility Advisor for Editors Victoria, the Victorian branch of the Institute of Professional Editors Australia and New Zealand. Thirangie currently serves as the Production Manager for an upcoming book on Sri Lankan artist Anoli Perera and teaches in the School of Culture and Communication’s publishing and media departments at the University of Melbourne.

Moderator

Curtis Jobe

Curtis currently works as the Deputy Principal at Galle International College. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Curtis relocated to Galle in 2014 to join the school and has thoroughly enjoyed participating in the growth of the school over the past decade whilst embracing opportunities, such as Galle Literary Festival, to connect with the broader community.

As an avid consumer of the crime genre, both fiction and true, Curtis is thrilled to have the opportunity to lead a conversation with Anthony Horowitz about his significant contribution to the genre and how he has seen it evolve over time.

Aside from reading crime fiction, Curtis also enjoys playing amateur pop covers on his piano, cooking and spending time with his rescue dogs and cats. He would like to thank the event organisers for this amazing opportunity and for bringing such a globally scaled event to the shores of south Sri Lanka.

Vinod Malwatte

A conservationist from Sri Lanka, Vinod is the Executive Director of the Lanka Environment Fund (LEF), a not-for-profit that facilitates small and medium scale grants to existing local conservation groups. Since its inception in 2019, the LEF has mobilised over $650,000 in conservation funding towards 15 local projects. Vinod is also the Co-Founder of the Parrotfish Collective (PFC), a group of conservation communicators that creates visually engaging educational content to raise eco-literacy rates amongst the public. Currently, Vinod serves on the Board of Trustees of the Federation of Environmental Organizations (FEO), Sri Lanka. He is also a co-owner of an artisanal tea company, Peekoh Tea which specialises in loose leaf teas and tisanes. Residing on the East Coast of the island with his partner and two dogs, he enjoys surfing, reading and exploring music in his free time.

Moderator

Savithri Rodrigo

An award-winning journalist with Presidential, Zonta and Sri Lanka Woman Leader awards, Savithri has over 35 years’ experience in the media. She is a Fellow of the ICSA (UK) and ICCSL (SL). Always involved in multiple projects, she is host, director & co-producer of digital programme Kaleidoscope with Savithri Rodrigo, is a writer, biographer, MC, host, moderator, interviewer, event manager and PR Consultant – to name a few. Savithri is also the MD of Stratyx Promotions & Media Concepts, Director at Intercoir Limited, Goodwill Ambassador for World Vision Lanka and a Trustee of the Salvation Army. Besides all this, she is a wanderlust enthusiast, compulsive writer, addicted reader, obsessive organiser,

control freak, food fan and ophidiophobe!

Moderator

Vidusha Nathavitharana

Vidusha is the founder and Destiny Architect of High Five Consultancy & Luminary Learning Solutions. Featured on TEDx Colombo for the Leadership Learning framework, he has over 15 years of hands-on experience in over 20 countries, has trained over 200,000 people and has led acclaimed HR and HRD initiatives. Vidusha is also one of two founding directors of Chrysalis, a social enterprise focusing on women and youth and a CARE affiliate. He was recognised as one of the World’s Top 30 Leadership Professionals for 2022 by Global Gurus Top30, is listed as one of the Top 50 Thought Leaders by Thinkers360 for 2023. He is also a listed member of the Organisational Culture Champions by LeaderHum.

Vidusha is currently reading for his PHD in Leadership. He holds an MA in Human Resource Management from Northampton University, an MA in Leading Innovation and Change from the University of York St. John, an MBA from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and a BA in Business Management from the University of Lincoln.

Speaker

Yanik Tissera

Yanik is a wildlife and conservation photographer based in Sri Lanka. Having developed a keen interest in the natural world from a young age, he later trained in photojournalism and portraiture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia. Yanik’s work has evolved over the years, and he is now a specialist in conservation story-telling, blending his love of photography, wildlife and preservation of the natural world. He divides his time between the eastern and southern coasts of the island, where he operates seasonal businesses.

Yanik co-heads the Parrotfish Collective, a group of conservation communicators producing mixed-media educational materials to inspire a love of nature among both children and adults. Yanik is driven by his desire to ensure that Sri Lanka’s natural world remains protected for future generations and his team has been instrumental in raising awareness of the importance of conservation efforts. His work is characterised by a deep understanding of nature, with an artistic eye that captures the beauty of the island’s wildlife.

Moderator

Shalini Wickramasuriya

Shalini WIckramasuriya is an educational consultant and has worked on projects relating to curriculum, schools and teachers skills development. Shalini is currently leading a countrywide pilot project for primary English spanning over 170 schools, and develops curriculum and reading material for the programme which includes an app for learning English. She was also the founder trustee of The Music Project which promoted music for social cohesion engaging youth of post conflict settings of Sri Lanka. The programme also had an impact on the national curriculum of western music of Sri Lanka.

Shalini has also served on the Council for Education in the Commonwealth, on the Faculty of Education of the University of Edinburgh and is currently on the Academic and Governing Council of the Bandaranaike Academy for Leadership and Public Policy. She has published a phonics based English programme for schools, a series of readers and has a historical fiction novel in the making.

Moderator

Pramodha Weerasekera

Pramodha Weerasekera is a curator, researcher, and writer based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She holds a BA (Hons) in English (University of Colombo) and an LLB (Hons) (University of London). She is the Curator of Education and Public Programmes at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka. Her role at the museum mainly involves curating public programmes and learning experiences for schools and higher education institutions in conjunction with exhibitions. She is committed to facilitating knowledge creation, critical thinking, and emotional reflection through arts and culture.

Moderator

Hen Tatham

Hen Tatham moved to Sri Lanka in 2002 and works for Festival founder Geoffrey Dobbs, so has been intricately involved in the Galle Literary Festival since the beginning. She has always been an avid reader, however running a hotel for ten years didn’t allow for much reading time! In her new guise as a wedding celebrant, Hen’s literary side has been reignited. Her love for the island of serendipity has never waned, and her dream to be a moderator is finally a reality. Lover of life and colour, Hen welcomes all Festival attendees and Alexander McCall Smith with great pleasure.

Moderator

Jill Macdonald

Jill Macdonald holds a degree in English Literature from Trinity College in the University of Toronto and an M. Phil. in English Literature from Balliol College, Oxford. A citizen of Canada, she was Director of Studies of The Colombo International School and then Headmistress of The British School in Colombo, a post she held for eleven years, during several of which she was also Principal. As founding Principal of The Study, Colombo’s first Sixth Form College, she continues to teach A-level literature and to pursue her particular interest in literature of the immigrant experience and in music, dance and art. She is a frequent moderator and speaker at literary events and in 2018 and 2019 was Curator of the Galle Literary Festival.

Moderator

Julia Wheeler

Julia Wheeler is a writer, journalist and interviewer who worked for the BBC for more than fifteen years. She was the BBC’s Gulf Correspondent based in the UAE and covering the Arabian Peninsula for ten years. Julia chairs discussions at literature and science festivals across the UK and internationally, including in the Middle East and North America. She has moderated events at The British Library, The Royal Geographical Society and mid-Atlantic, onboard Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. Julia is chair of judges for the 2024 Stanfords Travel Book of the Year and is a trustee of the Stratford Literary Festival. Julia wrote the award-winning book Telling Tales: An Oral History of Dubai, capturing stories of court intrigue, pearl diving and gold smuggling, along with the early days of education and banking. She read Economic and Social History with a focus on South Asia at university before postgraduate study in Broadcast Journalism.

Top Titles

Telling Tales: An Oral History of Dubai (2005)

Moderator

Leandro Filippin

Raised on the sun-soaked shores of Sri Lanka, Leandro’s childhood was painted by the rhythm of the waves. At just 10, he caught his first wave in Unawatuna, igniting a passion that would become his lifeblood. After attending Colombo International School, Leandro embarked on a global journey in hospitality, carrying his Sri Lankan roots with him. The allure of the island drew him back, and he has proudly called it home for the past 22 years.

Leandro’s dedication to Sri Lanka extends beyond its shores. He has spearheaded sustainable surf tourism projects, ensuring that the sport he loves thrives in harmony with the environment. In 2018, his passion for sharing the island’s magic led to the creation of Surf Sri Lanka Magazine, a publication that shines a light on the local surf culture.

Leandro’s latest venture, The Surfer’s Guide, is a comprehensive companion to navigating Sri Lanka’s vibrant surf scene. This second publication reinforces his commitment to sharing his knowledge with the world, ensuring that future generations can experience the joy of riding its waves.

Moderator

Tracy Holsinger

Tracy is a theatre maker, arts educator, and radio personality, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She’s a graduate in Drama and Theatre Arts from Goldsmiths College (University of London) and currently serves as a Drama Examiner for Trinity College, London. Tracy is the Artistic Director of Mind Adventures Theatre Company, which has toured Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Mongolia and Rwanda with original productions that focus on socio-political issues in Sri Lanka, while her radio work includes interviews dealing with constitutional and human rights crises. Her most recent screen appearances include Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown: Sri Lanka (2018) and Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy (2020). Tracy’s association with the GLF spans from 2009 to the present, during which she has staged performances, hosted poetry slams, and moderated sessions for Jean and Thiyagaraja Arasanayagam, Sir Tom Stoppard, and Sir David Hare. She has served as Curator of the Children’s Programme since 2018.

Hosts

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies

Tasmin Anthonisz

A Drama and Screen Studies graduate from Manchester University, associate of The Wendy Whatmore Academy of Speech and Drama, and old girl of Ladies’ College, Tasmin began her drama career as a munchkin in the Academy’s 2004 production of The Wiz. She made her professional debut in The Gaza Monologues 2010, produced by FloatingSpace Theatre Co. in association with Ashtar Theatre Palestine, and represented Sri Lanka in the international production of The Gaza Monologues at the UN HQ in New York, and the Le Mama Theatre off Broadway. Her theatrical journey has taken her to Manchester, Liverpool, London, Colombo, Galle and Maskeliya, working with leading theatre companies including Mind Adventures, Stages, WSP, Forced Entertainment (UK), and Tie-Dye Drama (UK). In 2016, she created her own initiative, Studiolusion, as a platform for emerging theatre practitioners in Sri Lanka to develop unorthodox performance ideas. Tasmin works primarily as a director, writer and actor, and is also the drama coach at Wesley College Colombo, whose students have won many accolades under her guidance.

Nadishka Aloysius

Nadishka Aloysius is a teacher, actor, and author. As a teacher of Drama and English Language with over 20 years’ experience, and a mother of two sons who love story time, she finds inspiration in the little everyday details of life. She is a firm believer that representation matters and strives to showcase Sri Lankan life in her work.

Nadishka conducts creative writing workshops and school visits to share her love of literature. Her debut novel for children, Ronan’s Dinosaur, was shortlisted for the State Literary Award in 2019, while her first YA novella Raavana’s Daughter was shortlisted for the State Literary Award in 2020, and longlisted for the prestigious Gratiaen Award in 2019. That Easter Sunday was awarded Best Children’s Literature at the State Literary Awards 2021, and Ayash Grows a Family Tree won the State Literary Award for Best Children’s Literature in 2023.

Top Titles

Raavana’s Daughter (2018)
That Easter Sunday (2020)
Ayash Grows a Family Tree (2022)

Host

Tharanga Liyana Arachchi

Tharanga Liyana Arachchi is an archaeologist and cultural interpreter. He completed his first degree in archaeology, followed by an MPhil on the Dutch and British architecture of Galle Fort. Tharanga has studied at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Reinwardt Academy in Amsterdam and IIRS in Dehradun (India). He now works as a Project Planning Officer at the Galle Heritage Foundation, and as a freelance lecturer on cultural heritage tourism for students who are learning to become guides. He enjoys travelling around Sri Lanka by motorbike whilst researching the island’s hidden cultures. Based just 500 metres from Galle Fort, Tharanga delights in sharing his knowledge by recounting stories about Galle Fort, its people and its setting.

Tehani Chitty

Healing happens in connection with others. Whether with a loved one or a therapist, a caring and non-judgemental shared space is what we need to process difficulties in life. Tehani Chitty is a dramatherapist and actor who aims to provide such a space. She facilitates one-to-one and group sessions for children and adults seeking support with a range of issues including, emotional and behavioural difficulties, anxiety, depression and trauma. Tehani has run self-compassion groups with women from conflict-affected areas and worked with children in residential care. Underpinning her work is the understanding that humans develop and heal through play, so her sessions and workshops are filled with stories, games and time for reflection.

Speaker

Geraldine Coates

Geraldine Coates is a professional writer whose specialist subject is gin. She is a pioneer of the great gin revival, having published the first book on the topic in over thirty years: Classic Gin, which is widely regarded as the gin bible. She has written regularly for a number of national and international publications and her other books include The Mixellany Guide to Gin and Gin the Essential Guide for Gin Aficionados.

She is Founding Editor of the world’s first website devoted to gin, and has spent the last 20 years talking about gin, hosting gin masterclasses for consumers, and writing training programmes as well as promotional material for some of the UK’s biggest gin companies. She acts as a consultant to the gin industry and has helped to develop a number of successful gin brands. She is also the course lecturer for the UK’s first ever officially recognised gin qualification, the Edinburgh Whisky Academy’s Gin Diploma. Geraldine was born and brought up in Sri Lanka.

Top Titles

Classic Gin (2000)

The Mixellany Guide to Gin (2009)

Gin: The Essential Guide for Gin Aficionados (2018)

Sulochana Dissanayake

Founder and artistic director of Power of Play (PVT) LTD, Sulochana Dissanayake engages in communication development, corporate training, education and performance. Based in Pita-Kotte, Sri Lanka, she is a cum laude graduate of Bates College (B.A. in Economics and Theater, 2009). Sulochana’s study of social economics combined with formal training in acting, directing, play writing and puppetry has led her to connect with diverse audiences, facilitating positive behavioural changes through creative, non-traditional communication tools. Her professional experience in leading theatres in the USA (Guthrie Theater & Williamstown Theater Festival) exposed her to the potential of presentations to influence audiences. Keen to discover the power of performance in building bridges across social, cultural and economic divides, she travelled to South Africa and Indonesia on a Watson Fellowship (2009/10). Back in Sri Lanka for the foreseeable future, Sulochana won the BUNKA Award in 2016. She uses her experience in the USA, Europe, Africa and Asia to create unique communication solutions for corporate, governmental and non-governmental sectors of Sri Lanka.

Chef

Emily Dobbs

Emily Dobbs is an acclaimed chef of ten years, having worked at The Dock Kitchen, Ducksoup, Petersham Nurseries, Spring and Italo restaurants in London, before becoming the head chef at Palm Hotel in Sri Lanka. In 2017, Dobbs set up the successful Sri Lankan-influenced street food stall Weligama – hailed by The Evening Standard as “utterly fantastic” – which went on to become the title of her first cookbook. Her second publication, The Spice Box – a creative guide to using spices and tasting new worlds – is out now with Laurence King Publishing. Emily’s food is heavily inspired by Sri Lanka, yet led by British seasons and fresh local produce. She is currently the head chef at London’s Lorian Deli and lives in East London.

Top Titles

Weligama: Recipes from Sri Lanka (2017)

The Spice Box: Taste New Worlds (2023)

Charles Uzzell-Edwards

Charles Uzzell-Edwards, born in South Wales in 1968, is a graffiti artist known by the moniker ‘Pure Evil’. In the early 1990s, he was one of the designers for Anarchic Adjustment with Alan Brown and Nick Philip and released electronic ambient music on Pete Namlook’s FAX label, recording “Octopus” 1, 2 & 3 and ‘Dada’ (under the pseudonym Drum Machine Circle) solo. He also produced ‘A New Consciousness” and ‘Create’ 1 & 2 with Pete Namlook, recorded “Supergroup” with Thomas Bullock, and ‘Audio’ with Tetsu Inoue and Daimon Beail. Charles has exhibited globally, and runs The Pure Evil Gallery in Shoreditch, London. In 2011, he created a special edition of prints to raise money for the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. He served as artist-in-residence of the Quin Arts program at the Quin Hotel in New York City in the spring of 2016.

Shimali Perera

Shimali Perera, AThR (B.S. Psychology, MA Art Therapy) holds a master’s degree in Art Therapy and is registered with the Australian, New Zealand & Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association (ANZACATA). Shimali has been practising in Sri Lanka as an art therapist for the past nine years, working with both adults and children. She collaborates with the Vida Medical Center and Ninewells Family Wellness for individual art therapy and art therapy experiential workshops. Her experience is in working with depression, anger and unforgiveness, anxiety disorders, facing stressful situations, coping with physical sickness, grief, trauma, and single-parent families. She conducts art therapy experiential workshops on de-stress and self-compassion for the corporate sector, schools, and NGOs.

Host

Saheedullah Saheed

Long-time Galle Fort resident Saheedullah Saheed is delighted to share his memories of life in the Fort with visitors. Expect historic insights, quirky tales and thoughtful reflections on a very special community, over the course of Saheedullah’s walking tour.

Host

StoryLandSL

StoryLandSL is a platform dedicated to the art of storytelling. The brainchild of Mokshini Jayamanne (Attorney-at-Law) and Kavitha Gunesekera (Human Resources), StoryLandSL aims to create captivating narratives that engage, entertain and inspire audiences across various mediums.

The idea was conceived during the challenging days of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the aim of helping parents and children get through an uncertain time. The feedback and engagement received was extraordinary, leading Mokshini and Kavitha to collaborate with like-minded storytellers to craft compelling storytelling experiences. “Saying Hello” was written by Mokshini for a live story-time hosted by the duo in 2020, and published in 2023.

Mokshini and Kavitha bring over 35 years of teaching and training experience to their work. With a commitment to quality and growth, they passionately believe in the power of storytelling to unite people, drive positive change, foster creativity, and promote a greater understanding of the world.

Neha Tennekoon

Neha Tennekoon presently holds the position of Gallery Assistant at the Barefoot Gallery in Colombo. In June 2023, she completed her education at the British School in Colombo, obtaining her secondary school degree. Neha is a digital artist, showcasing her talents in diverse fields such as illustration, animation, book design, and layouts. Her artistic repertoire includes graphic design, character design, and comics.

Neha’s digital portfolio is accessible on her Instagram handle, @neharts_. Additionally, her creative endeavours extend to @oceanswellorg on both Instagram and Twitter (X), offering a glimpse into her collaboration with Oceanswell, where she formerly served as the illustrator for the illustration series, “Megafauna Mondays.” Her artistic contributions to “Megafauna Mondays” not only showcase her skill with realism but also show her commitment to environmental narratives and marine conservation.

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) is committed to fostering coexistence and religious harmony, promoting pluralism, and building resilience among communities to resist the impact of extremism. Their work also encompasses initiatives in the areas of justice, memory, and reconciliation, where they advocate for an inclusive and holistic transitional justice process, pluralistic memories, and meaningful reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Additionally, they are dedicated to raising awareness on diversity and social inclusion, sensitising society and policymakers to the needs of marginalised persons. The centre’s core activities also include research on human rights and inequalities.

Host

Jude

Based in the south of Sri Lanka, Jude is a breathwork practitioner who curates wellness programmes for retreats. Jude combines classic Prānāyāma techniques, which he explored in his training at Sri Yoga Shala, with ‘Tummo’, a technique from Tibetan Buddhism which he studied with his teacher, Ram.

Host

Omaya

Omaya studied yoga with her mother and at Paramanand University in India, and now teaches yoga in the south of Sri Lanka.

Host

Sri Yoga Shala

Sri Yoga Shala is a holistic retreat centre inspired by our passion for yoga, meditation, bodywork and the (healing) Arts. Built with love and the intention to create synergy between the traditional and contemporary, this is a space for nourishment and growth for the body, mind and heart that aims to serve both the local and international community.

“…Sri is the name given to the divine feminine that manifests in so many forms around this wonderful universe. It is believed in the Vedic tradition that Sri is indeed the power that creates, nourishes, protects, heals and eventually liberates. She also expresses herself as energy and pervades through every being, bringing light and life, knowledge and illumination, purity and sacredness…” (Krishnamacharya Healing & Yoga Foundation)

‘Yoga’ in Sanskrit means ‘to yoke’, or to bring together. ‘Shala’ translates into ‘place to practice’. We are delighted to be hosting yoga and meditation in Galle Fort during the Festival, and look forward to hopefully welcoming you to our jungle sanctuary!

Performers

The Muslim Choral Ensemble

Performers

The Sunera Foundation

Performers

Misfit Souls

Born out of a shared passion for the magic of theatre, Misfit Souls traces its roots to humble beginnings. The ensemble’s journey started over a decade ago when a group of enthusiasts – initially brought together by the love for drama during their school days – found a void in Galle for English language theatre. Determined to continue their artistic pursuits, driven by a genuine love for the stage and the desire to infuse modernity and innovation into their productions, Misfit Souls was formed.

Over the years, the collective has evolved, yet their dedication has remained unwavering. The ensemble’s maiden production, The House of Bernarda Alba in 2019, garnered tremendous feedback, setting the stage for their continued journey. Their most recent production, The Wild Duck, staged initially in May 2023, received overwhelming praise from both local and international drama enthusiasts. As they reflect on their origins and the passion that fuelled their beginnings, Misfit Souls remains committed to fostering a love of theatre, encouraging and educating young talents, and establishing a vibrant English theatre culture in Southern Sri Lanka.

Performers

The Chamber Music Society of Colombo

Founded in 2007 by Lakshman Joseph-de Saram, the Chamber Music Society of Colombo (CMSC) has established itself as one of the region’s most critically acclaimed arts organisations. An internationally experienced ensemble, the CMSC has engaged sell-out audiences of serious music-lovers in Colombo, Kandy, Galle and Jaffna for over a decade. The orchestra’s concerts feature a repertoire from across all eras and forms, ranging from instrumental duets to opera which at once challenge and inspire both audience members and musicians. The CMSC is also proud to provide one of the most dedicated Education & Awareness programmes offered by a Sri Lankan classical-music organisation. Through its Education Fund, the CMSC has donated more than 5000 tickets to students from diverse backgrounds to attend high-quality live performances, workshops and masterclasses – all free of charge.

The CMSC owes its success to the commitment and hard work of its musicians. It is also indebted to its Chairman, Mr. Mohan Tissanayagam and The Chairman’s Circle, The Goethe-Institute, sponsors, and benefactors for support extended in a spirit of true partnership in pursuit of shared goals.

Performers

The Muslim Choral Ensemble

Established in 2017, Colombo-based Muslim Choral Ensemble (MCE) aims to promote cultural diversity and unite voices for harmony and hope. Bringing together people from different cultures and backgrounds through music, the MCE sees cultural diversity as a source of strength, emphasising the power of our shared humanity to transcend boundaries. Led by Haadia Galely and Professor André de Quadros, with the support of vocal coach Manoj Sanjeewa, the choir also offers a valuable opportunity for individuals to enhance their musical talents and to become more confident vocalists. Performances which celebrate the diversity of the Islamic choral tradition are purposefully designed to make a positive and meaningful contribution within and beyond the Muslim community.

In 2022, the ensemble expanded its reach by launching the World Muslim Choral Ensemble –“Ambassadors for Peace” initiative, inviting singers and musicians worldwide to join their mission for peace. The following year, the programme offered a one-week music residency in which India, Pakistan, Iran, and the USA were represented.

Performers

The Sunera Foundation

Back in 1988, founder Sunethra Bandaranaike collaborated with Wolfgang Stange to set up a performing arts workshop and charity for a group of people with disabilities in Sri Lanka. Over the next few years, The Sunera Foundation, together with Wolf Stange and Rohana Deva, conducted performing arts workshops and produced four theatrical performances. The collaboration ended in 2007. However, the Sunera Foundation has continued its activities, expanding its outreach, developing its programmes and catering to an ever-increasing demand for its expertise and support to change the lives of the differently-abled individuals in Sri Lanka.

Stages Theatre Group

Stages Theatre Group is a Colombo-based theatre company with over 24 years of experience in producing cutting edge, socially conscious theatre and original Sri Lankan plays. Led by Artistic Director Ruwanthie de Chickera and comprises three ensembles – the official Stages Ensemble, the Youth Ensemble (16-24 year olds) and the Junior Ensemble (10-15 year olds) – Stages Theatre Group currently devises its own plays. In addition to producing high quality theatre, STG invests in strengthening artist networks, creating accessible multilingual art, ensuring sustainability, and offering opportunities for young artists. STG’s diverse interests include original theatre, script writing, devised theatre, screenplay writing, school workshops, children’s and youth theatre, ensemble training, and local and international collaborations.

Mind Adventures Theatre Company

Established in 1999 by Tracy Holsinger, Mind Adventures is an experimental theatre company based in Colombo. Inspired by people and events in Sri Lanka, the company creates mostly original, devised work that focuses on socio-political issues in the country. Specialising in intimate theatre experiences staged in unconventional venues, Mind Adventures is noted for provocative and interactive performances. Productions this past year include Angela’s Journey with Down Syndrome advocate Angela Bettoni from Malta, and Strangers In The Night, a tri-lingual collaboration between theatre makers from Bogawantalawa, Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna. The company also conducts residential workshops with children and theatre makers in the north, as well as workshops for youth in Colombo. Plans for 2024 include celebrating 25 years of making theatre with a creative residency at a community kitchen and home garden, with all productions containing a culinary surprise for audiences.

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