Srianthi Perera
Journalist. Author. Traveler.
“As an author, I take allowance to dream, plan, plot, and craft a perfect work. Within the pages of my books, may you find a meaningful phrase or two that speaks volumes to you.”
“2021 South Asia Book Award HIghly Commended Book. Young Adult Literature
In this whimsical historical literary novel set in tropical Sri Lanka, a young woman, Tamara de Silva, reflects with wit and warmth to the time her extended family was trying to marry off her uncle. Berty Uncle is a Jane Austenian-type of bachelor trying to figure out whether marriage is worth trying to reclaim his family estate from the clutches of a scheming sister.
To the Western reader, the book opens a window to a foreign culture. Themes include Buddhism, arranged marriages, astrology and coming-of-age traditions. To Sri Lankans who lived through that time, the story is immensely nostalgic.
Travelers, armchair or otherwise, who love to dip into world cultures will enjoy this collection of short stories. Authors Srianthi Perera and Romany Kadurugamuwa hope the recounts of their often-witty travel experiences around the globe will whet your appetite to try the same.
The writing evokes rich, sensory details of the places they explored and outlines dialogue with the quirky people they met. Cultural insight, the political background, historical context, and other pertinent information are thrown in to help glean knowledge from the reading journey. The stories are time capsules.
“While growing up in 1970s Sri Lanka, I did not meet any authors. English books, however, were readily available in this former British colony in Southeast Asia. I had a voracious appetite for stories since childhood, so I read widely in my mother tongue, Sinhala, and my second language, English. To me then, writing a book was such a rare and unimaginable accomplishment that I did not even dwell on it. Authors existed only as names on book covers. I did not dream of meeting any.”
So begins my contribution to this anthology of various writers penning their journeys to authorship. The path can be arduous and exacting, but stick around, and the rewards will come. If you have author ambitions, this book will inspire you.
Travels for Bookworms: Readers who love to travel may find their ideal destinations in this upcoming book of literary travels in the US. The collection includes visits to author home museums and their tombs, quaint bookstores, libraries, hotels frequented by literati, roadside monuments and literary sculpture walks. Most destinations are predictable, but there are others that would need some imagination to enjoy.
Featured authors include William Faulkner in Oxford, Mississippi (top photo); Mark Twain in Hartford, Connecticut (bottom photo); Walt Whitman in Camden, New Jersey; Edgar Allen Poe in Bronx, New York, Louisa May Alcott in Concord, Massachusetts; Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Florida and John Steinbeck in Salinas, California.
Author Profile
The author at the Goethe House in Florence, Italy.
Srianthi Perera is a journalist who has lived and worked in Sri Lanka, the Sultanate of Oman, Canada and the United States.
She has written hundreds of articles over the years, which have been published in newspapers and magazines. She has covered many topics, ranging from local government issues, neighborhoods and communities to arts, entertainment, history, books and travel.
An avid traveler, she has explored and photographed dozens of museums and other sites globally. In her desire to know more about the world, she has walked as many miles as her feet could tolerate.
Among her favorite memories are the following:
Meeting the Bedu in the soft, orange dunes of Wahiba Sands, Oman.
Crawling along the subterranean, early Christian hideouts in Göreme, Turkey.
Enjoying the incongruous sight in Petra, Jordan of young men riding camels while preoccupied with their cellphones. Also, floating in the Dead Sea in Jordan.
Cruising the Panama Canal, where she observed ships squeezing through the water locks of the great canal.
Listening to Ave Maria inside the purple-shaded, underground Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, Colombia.
Getting lost in the labyrinthine streets of the Fez Medina, Morocco.
Cuddling a rather heavy—and somewhat lazy—wombat in Melbourne, Australia.
Running a few yards on the ancient racetrack where the Olympic Games originated in Olympia, Greece.
Experiencing the tranquility of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan.
While immersed in her busy journalism career, she wrote her first novel, A Maiden’s Prayer, recalling her own coming-of-age reminiscences and experiences in tropical Sri Lanka in the 1970s.
Recently, together with a co-author, she published Two Friends on Many Roads: Travel Tales from Near and Far, a book of travel short stories that transports the reader to lands around the world.
Continuing the theme of destinations, she is currently working on a book of literary travels in the US.
Write to her at evocativejourneys@gmail.com.