- Lankan woman writer wins prestigious award

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Lankan woman writer wins prestigious award

vendredi, 05 septembre 2008

US: Three fiction writers, a poet and two essayists have been named recipients of the 14th annual Rona Jaffe Foundation's awards, grants of $25,000 each for "women writers of talent and promise in the early stages of their writing careers." Hasanthika Sirisena, a native of Sri Lanka now living in New York City is among the recipients.

The winners, announced Wednesday, include Jennifer Culkin, a nurse who lives in Bainbridge Island, Wash., and is working on a book of essays about her medical experiences; and fellow essayist Amy Leach, of Evanston, Ill., currently writing about such topics as jellyfish, peas and lizards. Also cited were poet Joanne Dominique Dwyer of Santa Fe, N.M.; novelists Jolie Lewis of Richwood, W.Va., and Tillson, N.Y., resident Therese Stanton, working on a book of short fiction. NEW YORK, AP

(Courtesy : Daily News )

Hasanthika Sirisena, a Sri Lankan-American, is working on a coming-of-age novel, Edenboro, in which the protagonist, 15-year-old Jini de Foneska, and her family, newly arrived from Sri Lanka, try to make their way in a predominantly African-American neighborhood in the South. Ms. Sirisena is also working on a collection of short stories.

Her story “Pine” was selected by Francine Prose for the 2005 Best New American Voices and her work has since appeared in Epoch, Witness, and the 2007 Annual Story Quarterly. Ms. Sirisena lives in Jackson Heights, New York, and is an adjunct lecturer at City College New York, where she received her M.F.A. in 2006, and an instructor for Gotham Writers’ Workshop.

She intends to use her Writer’s Award to live in Sri Lanka for a year to conduct essential research and finish both her novel and short story collection.

(Courtesy : ronajaffefoundation.org )

Last Updated ( lundi, 09 mars 2009 )