Asymptote: Weekly Updates from the Front Lines of World Literature (September 2020)

Since its inaugural event in 1999, the Colombo International Book Fair(CIBF) has been a major annual literary event in Sri Lanka. Marking September as the National Literary Month, and including the announcement of major literary awards such as the Svarna Pustaka (The Golden Book), Rajata Pustaka (The Silver Book), Godage, and Vidyodaya national literary awards, the CIBF has become the focal point of the island’s literary events. Both the 2020 Svarna Pustaka Award (which is awarded to the best novel published in the previous year) and Vidyodaya Literary Award for the best novel written in 2020 were presented to Petha (Hungry Ghost) by Eric Illayappaachchi.
Read the full update on Asymptote

Why Sri Lankan Literature Matters?

“Even within South Asia, Sri Lanka occupies a minority state in terms of both its geography and population. From a translator’s perspective, I couldn’t help but notice that the rate of Sri Lankan contemporary literature that is being circulated (in translation or in the original language/s) and read around the world is comparably lower than the national literatures of many other countries. It is also studied and anthologized much less often than other national literatures of the world. We talk about the infamous “3% factor” of annual literary translation publications in the US, but we’ve hardly ever seen or heard about a translation from the Sinhalese making it to the languages that contribute to that percentage, right”

-Interview with Project Plume