Writing in Displacement
Focus on Sri Lankan Writers
April 4th 2025, 11am to 5pm,
Foster Auditorium, Penn State University
The day-long literary event will feature four Sri Lankan authors uprooted by the civil war in the country. They will read from their works and discuss the challenges for writing from displacement.
These authors have published prolifically and received international recognition:
- Indran Amirthanayagam: He writes, translates, and publishes poetry and essays in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. Amirthanayagam’s poems have won a Paterson Poetry Prize and a Juegos Florales. His writing has appeared in theNew York Times, theKenyon Review, the New England Review, BOMB, Siempre, La Gaceta, and other magazines: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/indran-amirthanayagam
- Sugi Ganeshananthan: Her novel Brotherless Night about the Sri Lankan civil war has recently won two major awards, the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction. She teaches in the English Department at University of Minnesota: https://vvganeshananthan.com/about
- Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha: They are a widely respected disability justice activist and scholar, who started as a creative writer. After four collections of poetry, their latest book is The Future is Disabled. They have won the 2012 Lambda Literary Award and the 2021 Nautilus Award for Nonfiction, among others: https://brownstargirl.org/category/books/
- Cheran Rudramoorthy: He has authored over fifteen books in Tamil, and his work has been translated into twenty languages. Several volumes of his work have been published in English translation. He will read from his translated poems. He is a professor of sociology at the University of Windsor, Canada. https://www.beltwaypoetry.com/poetry/poets/names/r-cheran/
The readings will be chaired by Elizabeth Nicole Kadetsky, Professor of English and Creative Writing (https://english.la.psu.edu/directory/enk3/). A critical discussion of the authors’ craft and politics will be moderated by Tina Chen, Associate Professor of English and Asian American Studies and Founding Director of the Global Asias Initiative (https://english.la.psu.edu/directory/tcg3/).
Lunch and refreshments are included for all participants during the breaks.
The publications of the authors will be available for purchase and the authors will sign their books.
Those with access needs, please contact Prof. Suresh Canagarajah before April 1st at asc16@psu.edu
This event is co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Department; English Department; Creative Writing; Disability Studies Minor; Center for Democratic Deliberation; Center for Global Studies; Humanities Institute; Migration Studies Project; Penn State University Libraries; and the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.