Sri Lankan-born British author
Romesh Gunesekera
Romesh Gunesekera at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2012
Born August 1954 (1954-08 ) Colombo , Sri Lanka Occupation Novelist Nationality Sri Lankan-born British Notable works Reef (1994); The Match (2006)Notable awards Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature UK, Sri Lanka Ranjana National Honour
Romesh Gunesekera FRSL (born 1954) is a Sri Lankan -born British author,[ 1] who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel Reef in 1994.[ 2] He has judged a number of literary prizes and was Chair of the judges of Commonwealth Short Story Prize competition for 2015.[ 3]
Life and work Born in Colombo to a Sinhalese Christian family in 1954, Romesh Gunesekera grew up in Sri Lanka and the Philippines , where his father was a founder of the Asian Development Bank , and moved to England in 1971 and currently lives in London . His first book, Monkfish Moon , a collection of short stories reflecting the ethnic and political tensions that have threatened Sri Lanka since independence in 1948, was published in 1992, and was shortlisted for several prizes.[ 4] His 1994 novel Reef was shortlisted for the Booker Prize .
Gunesekera travels widely for festivals, workshops and British Council tours. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature .[ 5]
He is currently one of the writers-in-residence for the charity First Story .[ 6] He also has a short story related to the theme of animal poaching.
He was a judge for a number of literary prizes, such as the Caine Prize for African Writing ,[ 7] the David Cohen Prize for Literature , the Forward Prize for Poetry [ 8] and most recently the Granta 2013 list of the Best of Young British Novelists.[ 9]
He chaired the board of judges of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize competition.
He has been a Guest Director at the Cheltenham Festival , an Associate Tutor at Goldsmiths College and on the Board of the Arvon Foundation . For four years, until 2013, he was on the Council of the Royal Society of Literature .
He is married with two daughters.[ 10]
Bibliography
Books Gunesekera, Romesh (1992). Monkfish Moon . New Press. ISBN 9781565840775 .
Reef – 1994
The Sandglass – 1998
Heaven's Edge – 2002
The Match – 2006
The Prisoner of Paradise – 2012
Noon Tide Toll – 2013
Suncatcher – 2019
Short fiction
Title
Year
First published
Reprinted/collected
Notes
Road kill
2013
Gunesekera, Romesh (2 December 2013). "Road kill". The New Yorker . Vol. 89, no. 39. pp. 62–65.
Awards Asian Achievers Award for services to media, arts and culture 2015
Sri Lanka Ranjana 2005
BBC Asia Award 1998 for Achievement in Writing & Literature
Winner Premio Mondello Five Continents Asia Prize 1997 (Reef)
Winner of Yorkshire Post First Work Prize 1995 (for Reef )
Finalist Booker Prize 1994 (Reef)
Finalist Guardian Fiction Prize 1994 (for Reef )
Finalist Commonwealth Writers' Regional Prize 1993 (for Monkfish Moon )
Finalist David Higham Prize 1992 (for Monkfish Moon )
Arts Council Writers' Bursary 1991
First prize in the Peterloo Open Poetry Competition in 1988
The Rathborne Prize in Philosophy 1976
Liverpool College Poetry Prize 1972
References
^ "About Romesh Gunasekera" . Retrieved 19 November 2020 .
^ "Romesh Gunesekera" , The Man Booker Prize
^ "The 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize" . Commonwealth Writers . 31 August 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2020 .
^ Biography at Romesh Gunesekera website.
^ "Grammar, Style, and Usage" . Writing Explained . Retrieved 19 November 2020 .
^ "Writers Archives" . Retrieved 19 November 2020 .
^ "Judges 2005" , The Caine Prize.
^ "Forward Judges" , Forward Arts Foundation.
^ "Granta and British Council Announce ‘Best of Young British Novelists’ Partnership" , Granta .
^ Bunbury, Stephanie (2 September 2006). "Finding meaning in a long gone past", The Age , Insight, p. 10.
External links
Single Prize for Literature Special Jury Prize
Denise McSmith (1975)
Stefano D'Arrigo (1977)
Yury Trifonov (1978)
Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1979)
Pietro Consagra (1980)
Ignazio Buttitta , Angelo Maria e Ela Ripellino (1983)
Leonardo Sciascia (1985)
Wang Meng (1987)
Mikhail Gorbachev (1988)
Peter Carey , José Donoso , Northrop Frye , Jorge Semprún , Wole Soyinka , Lu Tongliu (1990)
Fernanda Pivano (1992)
Associazione Scrittori Cinesi (1993)
Dong Baoucum , Fan Boaci , Wang Huanbao , Shi Peide , Chen Yuanbin (1995)
Xu Huainzhong , Xiao Xue , Yu Yougqnan , Qin Weinjung (1996)
Khushwant Singh (1997)
Javier Marías (1998)
Francesco Burdin (2001)
Luciano Erba (2002)
Isabella Quarantotti De Filippo (2003)
Marina Rullo (2006)
Andrea Ceccherini (2007)
Enrique Vila-Matas (2009)
Francesco Forgione (2010)
First narrative work First poetic work Prize for foreign literature Prize for foreign poetry First work
Valerio Magrelli (1980)
Ferruccio Benzoni , Stefano Simoncelli, Walter Valeri , Laura Mancinelli (1981)
Jolanda Insana (1982)
Daniele Del Giudice (1983)
Aldo Busi (1984)
Elisabetta Rasy , Dario Villa (1985)
Marco Lodoli , Angelo Mainardi (1986)
Marco Ceriani , Giovanni Giudice (1987)
Edoardo Albinati , Silvana La Spina (1988)
Andrea Canobbio , Romana Petri (1990)
Anna Cascella (1991)
Marco Caporali , Nelida Milani (1992)
Silvana Grasso , Giulio Mozzi (1993)
Ernesto Franco (1994)
Roberto Deidier (1995)
Giuseppe Quatriglio , Tiziano Scarpa (1996)
Fabrizio Rondolino (1997)
Alba Donati (1998)
Paolo Febbraro (1999)
Evelina Santangelo (2000)
Giuseppe Lupo (2001)
Giovanni Bergamini , Simona Corso (2003)
Adriano Lo Monaco (2004)
Piercarlo Rizzi (2005)
Francesco Fontana (2006)
Paolo Fallai (2007)
Luca Giachi (2008)
Carlo Carabba (2009)
Gabriele Pedullà (2010)
Foreign author Italian Author
Alberto Moravia (1982)
Vittorio Sereni alla memoria (1983)
Italo Calvino (1984)
Mario Luzi (1985)
Paolo Volponi (1986)
Luigi Malerba (1987)
Oreste del Buono (1988)
Giovanni Macchia (1989)
Gianni Celati , Emilio Villa (1990)
Andrea Zanzotto (1991)
Ottiero Ottieri (1992)
Attilio Bertolucci (1993)
Luigi Meneghello (1994)
Fernando Bandini , Michele Perriera (1995)
Nico Orengo (1996)
Giuseppe Bonaviri , Giovanni Raboni (1997)
Carlo Ginzburg (1998)
Alessandro Parronchi (1999)
Elio Bartolini (2000)
Roberto Alajmo (2001)
Andrea Camilleri (2002)
Andrea Carraro , Antonio Franchini, Giorgio Pressburger (2003)
Maurizio Bettini , Giorgio Montefoschi , Nelo Risi (2004)
pr. Raffaele Nigro , sec. Maurizio Cucchi , ter. Giuseppe Conte (2005)
pr. Paolo Di Stefano , sec. Giulio Angioni (2006)
pr. Mario Fortunato , sec. Toni Maraini , ter. Andrea Di Consoli (2007)
pr. Andrea Bajani , sec. Antonio Scurati , ter. Flavio Soriga (2008)
pr. Mario Desiati , sec. Osvaldo Guerrieri , ter. Gregorio Scalise (2009)
pr. Lorenzo Pavolini , sec. Roberto Cazzola , ter. (2010)
pr. Eugenio Baroncelli , sec. Milo De Angelis , ter. Igiaba Scego (2011)
pr. Edoardo Albinati , sec. Paolo Di Paolo , ter. Davide Orecchio (2012)
pr. Andrea Canobbio , sec. Valerio Magrelli , ter. Walter Siti (2013)
pr. Irene Chias , sec. Giorgio Falco , ter. Francesco Pecoraro (2014)
pr. Nicola Lagioia , sec. Letizia Muratori , ter. Marco Missiroli (2015)
pr. Marcello Fois , sec. Emanuele Tonon , ter. Romana Petri (2016)
pr. Stefano Massini , sec. Alessandro Zaccuri , ter. Alessandra Sarchi (2017)
"Five Continents" Award "Palermo bridge for Europe" Award Ignazio Buttitta Award Supermondello Special award of the President Poetry prize Translation Award Identity and dialectal literatures award Essays Prize Mondello for Multiculturality Award Mondello Youths Award "Targa Archimede", Premio all'Intelligenza d'Impresa Prize for Literary Criticism Award for best motivation Special award for travel literature Special Award 40 Years of Mondello
International National Academics Other