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

As a country with one of the highest literacy rates in South Asia, Sri Lanka has always tried to maintain the literacy rate of its population. In 2004, the National Library and Documentation Services Board and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and National Heritage declared October as the National Reading Month as a follow up to September’s National Literary Month. With events ranging from launching new books and announcing major literary award winners, to the most coveted book event of the year—the Colombo International Bookfair—the month of September is generally regarded as the Literary Spring of the island. As such, October is encouraged to be utilized as a period to intellectually engage with the literary wealth produced and purchased in the previous month.
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