Roshi Fernando | |
Nationality: | British Sri Lankan |
Education: | Warwick University Swansea University |
Genre: | Short story |
Subject: | Literature |
Notableworks: | Homesick,The Fluorescent Jacket |
Awards: | Impress Prize for New Writers |
Roshi Fernando is an English writer of Sri Lankan origin. Her stories often depict Sri Lankan immigrants and take place in both Sri Lanka and England.[1]
Roshi Fernando was born and brought up in London by Sri Lankan parents. She has a BA in Philosophy and Literature at Warwick University, and a PhD in English and Creative Writing at Swansea University.[2] In 2009 she won the Impress Prize for New Writers for her short story collection Homesick[3]
Her book Homesick (2012) is a series of interlinked short stories featuring a cast of characters tied to an extended Sri Lankan family of migrants and their Westernised children in southeast London in the 1980s.[4] It drew comparisons with Zadie Smith and Andrea Levy.[5] The collection includes "The Fluorescent Jacket", shortlisted for the 2011 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.[6] The whole collection was shortlisted for the 2011 Edge Hill Short Story Prize.[7] In 2012, BBC Radio 4 adapted five of Fernando's stories, including The Clangers, The Turtle and Test, as short radio plays.[8] These were repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2015.