A reading by Asoka Weerasinghe

Award-winning poet Asoka Weerasinghe will read from his 16th book of poetry, ‘The Land of Serendipity’ on Saturday, June 7 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Punchi Theatre, Borella.

A geologist, paleontologist and museologist, Asoka attributes his interest in English poetry to his 4th Grade teacher at Nalanda Collge Mrs Y.C. Perera.

“It was Mrs Perera who injected into my bloodstream the germ of poetry and it has been a blood-jet ever since I was 8,” he says. “I thank her immensely for making me understand rhymes, couplets and syllabics in poetry.” He also studied the craft under Katherine Valmai Richardson of the Poetry Society of London. His poetry has been published in literary magazines, anthologies and poetry supplements in the UK, Canada, India, Germany and many countries.

His long poem ‘The Trail of Mankind’ was adopted as the storyline for the National Museum of Man’s Orientation Hall in Ottawa in 1972. He lives in Canada.