Chamanthie Sinhalage-Fonseka Courtesy Stuff

Chamanthie Sinhalage-Fonseka is a Sri Lankan-born New Zealander based in Auckland, where she lives and works as a public relations consultant.

OPINION: “Man wins top literary prize to convince parents he didn’t need to do medicine,” a Sri Lankan Aucklander tweeted in response to the announcement of this year’s Booker Prize winning author, Shehan Karunatilaka.

If you’re Kiwi of any kind of Asian heritage, you’ll probably recognise the reference immediately: we aren’t hugely represented in creative industries, but when we do, it’s often an act of rebellion against tradition and family.

There is a Sinhalese phrase that I heard a lot growing up: kala keroth mala. It translates roughly to: creative pursuits will lead you to ruin and failure” – or, more literally: do arts and die.

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So, of course, if you are a creatively inclined Sri Lankan-Kiwi, you go hard because you know there’s no going home.

Sri Lankan-born Karunatilaka’s win of the most prestigious literary prize in the English-speaking world this week was a real moment for Sri Lankan creatives everywhere, but especially so for Sri Lankan-Kiwi creatives in Aotearoa.

Karunatilaka is not only Sri Lankan, but arguably Kiwi too, having attended secondary school and university in New Zealand. Digesting and dissecting his win with my Sri Lankan-Kiwi friends this week, there is an overwhelming feeling that he’s been where we’ve been, and he feels like he’s one of us.

Of course, the feeling of one of us” isn’t limited to Sri Lankan-Kiwis or Asian-Kiwis.

Karunatilaka has said he is in the process of moving back to New Zealand. When that happens, he’ll be an addition to our Booker-winning landscape along with Keri Hulme and Eleanor Catton.

At the same time, while Karunatilaka represents the zenith of Sri Lankan literary talent in 2022, it would be remiss to assume he’s an outlier as a literary Sri Lankan or literary Sri Lankan-Kiwi.

In fact, Sri Lankans have now won the Booker more times than the Cricket World Cup.

Remarkably, 2022 also marks 30 years since Sri Lankan Michael Ondaatje won the Booker Prize for The English Patient (although I maintain Running in the Family is his true masterpiece).

Though now a migrant to Canada, Ondaatje famously described his writing style as shaped by Ceylon’s oral traditions: “tall stories, gossip, arguments and lies at dinner”.

Back home, Sri Lankan-Kiwi writers are coming into their own as part of the modern New Zealand storytelling identity.

The five writers below are a sample of the depth and variety developing amongst New Zealand writers of Sri Lankan heritage today.

No two writers are the same, though in typical Sri Lankan-Kiwi fashion, they all definitely go hard, pairing their writing with interesting and ambitious day jobs.

Five Sri Lankan-Kiwi writers to watch

Brannavan Gnanalingam

Born in Colombo and brought up in Lower Hutt, 39-year old Brannavan Gnanalingam has seven novels to his name.

A three-time Ockham finalist (two shortlists and one long list) and recipient of the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Awards for his novel Sprigs, his writing draws widely and acutely from personal experience and observation both as a Kiwi and a Sri Lankan.

In true Sri Lankan creative fashion, outside of his absolute domination of the local literary scene, he is a lawyer and litigator at a major New Zealand law firm. (He is also a regular contributor to Stuff and Sunday magazine in the Sunday Star-Times.)

Himali McInnes

Himali McInnes proves you can be Sri Lankan-Kiwi and have it all, by being both a doctor and a writer. An accomplished essayist and short story-writer, her 2021 book The Unexpected Patient: True Kiwi stories of life, death and unforgettable clinical cases explores the bonds that are forged between practitioner and patient in unique situations, from terrorist attacks to the brink of death to supernatural connections.

Jehan Casinader

Sri Lankan-born New Zealander Jehan Casinader writes when a disaster strikes, most people run away – but journalists run towards it”.

The television presenter, public speaker and journalist takes the inherent rebellion of Kiwi-Asian creative pursuits up another notch by tackling one of the most taboo of Asian cultural topics: mental health.

His book This is Not How it Ends is both a personal memoir of his own journey of depression and a contribution to New Zealand’s growing male mental health kaupapa.

Romesh Dissanayake

Romesh Dissanayake’s ostensibly Sinhalese name belies his Sri Lankan-Korean-Russian-Kiwi heritage.

An up-and-comer, his name is popping up in literary magazines, anthologies and writers’ festivals.

Like the others in this list, Dissanayake is no one-trick pony. A talented Wellington-based chef, he is also known for running Sri Lankan-themed pop-up dinners in the capital. He named the dinner series SEELA, after his rebellious, full-of-life Sri Lankan grandmother.

Andrew Fidel Fernando

Kiwis who are serious about cricket will likely recognise Andrew Fernando’s name. A prodigious and prolific writer on Cricinfo from a young age, this Auckland-raised Sri Lankan is now based in Colombo – a returnee of the diaspora, covering the country on the ground.

His book Upon a Sleepless Isle: travels in Sri Lanka by Bus, Cycle and Trishaw was the recipient of the 2019 Gratiaen Prize – Sri Lankan’s highest English-language literary honour which, incidentally, was won by one Shehan Karunatilaka in 2008.

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