'The pain becomes the poem': An Interview with Jean Arasanayagam

Abstract

[eng] An essential figure of Sri Lankan letters, Jean Arasanayagam (1931-2019) was the author of more than 50 books of poetry and fiction. Of Burgher extraction, Jean received her education in Sri Lanka and Europe. Later, in her career as a writer, she spent several periods at different universities and institutions abroad, but always returned to her home in Kandy, where she lived with her husband, Tamil playwright and poet Thiagarajah Arasanayagam. Jean was devoted to exploring her island’s ancestry and identity and was distinguished with many outstanding recognitions. In 2014 she obtained the Premchand Fellowship of the Sahitya Akademi in India. In 2017, she won the cherished Graetian Prize for her poetry collection The Life of the Poet and was also awarded the “Sahityaratna” by the Sri Lankan government for her lifetime contributions.