Fairway English Creative Writing Workshop 2017

Fairway Holdings will conduct its second English Creative Writing Workshop on 3 and 4 November at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies. 

This workshop follows in the wake of the highly successful first Fairway English Creative Writing Workshop held last year which attracted 125 young participants from diverse fields. 

Fairway Holdings is a conglomerate with a primary interest in property development. In recent years it has emerged as the animating force behind both the upcoming Fairway Galle Literary Festival as well as the Fairway National Literary Awards for creative writing in all three languages. The Fairway English Creative Writing Workshop is another of its initiatives.  

The workshop will be conducted by a resource panel comprising highly respected academics, writers and publishers. It is designed to offer the participants a broad ‘first exposure’ to the entire creative writing process from the blank page to the published work and will include sessions on writing novels, short stories and poems, scriptwriting, editing for publication and getting published. 

Commenting on the process of designing the workshop, Fairway Group Deputy Chairman Kavinda Dias-Abeysinghe observed that, “There are very few opportunities to learn the craft of creative writing in Sri Lanka. We want to facilitate this learning process and also encourage young people to aspire to high standards in creative writing while preserving their vision and originality.”

Speaking about the response to last year’s workshop he went on to observe, “We did not anticipate the strength of the impulse towards creative writing, and it has certainly encouraged us, particularly the very positive feedback from the participants.”  

The workshop has a nominal all-inclusive registration fee of Rs. 500 and details for registration are available at www.fnla.lk. Participants have to be between the ages of 16 and 35 and will be registered for the workshop on a first-come first-served basis. The closing date for entries is 28 October.

A brief Profile of the Resource Panel

1.The first session ‘Understanding Creative Writing’ will be conducted by Madhubhashini Disanayaka Ratnayake who is a senior lecturer in the English Language Teaching Unit of the University of Sri Jaywardenepura. She was awarded the Gratiaen Prize in 2011 for her first novel ‘There’s Something I Have to Tell You’

2.The session on ‘Writing Short Stories’ will be conducted by Ameena Hussein. An acclaimed writer/publisher, Ameena published her first book ‘Fifteen’ in 1999. It was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize. Her second book of short stories ‘Zillij’ appeared in 2003 and won the State Literary Prize. She co-owns the Perera Hussein Publishing House. 

3.The session on ‘Getting Published’ will be conducted by the celebrated journalist, editor, book seller and publisher Vijitha Yapa. He is the founder, Chairman, and Managing Director of the largest English bookstore chain in the country. 

4.The session on ‘Writing Novels’ will be conducted by Charulatha Abeysekara Thewarathanthri who was the winner of the Gratiaen Prize in 2016 for her novel ‘Stories’. She is a Civil Engineering graduate from the University of Moratuwa. She was a Mathematics and Physics teacher for London A Level students at the British School in Colombo for nearly 10 years and S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia. 

5.The session on ‘Playwriting and Screenwriting’ will be conducted by Arun Welandawe Prematilleke. He is a playwright and director. He studied Drama and Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths College, University of London and went on to graduate with a first class in 2010. He has acted in several productions at the Southwark Playhouse and the Shunt Lounge and performed in two productions simultaneously at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2009. 

6.The session on ‘Editing for Publication’ will be conducted by Jill Macdonald who holds an M. Phil. in English Literature from Balliol College, Oxford. She was, for many years the Principal of The British School in Colombo and as founding Principal of The Study, continues to teach Advanced Level English Literature while pursuing her passion for music, dance and art. 

7.The final session which is on ‘Writing Poetry’ will be conducted by Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe, an acclaimed poet and writer. She is the author of ‘Rhythm of the Sea’, and ‘Trinity’. Her book of poetry, ‘There’s an Island in the Bone’ won the State Literary Joint Award for Poetry in 2011. She was long listed for the Fish Poetry Prize of Ireland in 2011 and was a joint runner-up in the UK’s Guardian Orange First Words Prize of 2009.