A love for literature and discovering the writer in her
Rukshani Weerasooriya Wijemanne has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2023 for her story ‘Principles of Accounting’. 28 writers from 19 countries across the Commonwealth were selected from over 6,600 submissions.
This year’s judging panel includes Bilal Tanweeer (Chair), Rémy Ngamije (Africa), Ameena Hussein (Asia), Katrina Best (Canada and Europe), Mac Donald Dixon (Caribbean) and Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh (Pacific).
The Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from the Commonwealth. Sri Lankan-born, New Zealand writer Himali McInnes has also been shortlisted for her story ‘Kilinochchi’.
The 2023 regional winners will be announced on May 17 and the overall winner on June 27.
Extracts from the email interview
- Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you started writing?
Rukshani. Pic by Prishan Pandithage
I am the third child in a closely knit family of six. There was a lot that happened in my childhood that I was too young to process. The loss of my older brother played a huge role in me starting to write. He was the subject of a lot of my early writing. The loss of my baby brother two years later was yet another blow to the system. Growing up in a military family in the ’80s and ’90s also played an important role in me turning to writing. It was quite a lonely life, to be honest, in that, it was so much harder than it looked. I often felt misunderstood or subject to unnecessary scrutiny, because of my father’s job, at an exceptionally complex time in our history. Writing helped me to cope with all this.
After my father’s retirement from the Army, we moved to Islamabad, Pakistan, for several years. I was in my late teens by this time. During our time there, my family and I survived a horrific suicide bomb attack one Sunday morning, at our church. Again, writing became a key way in which I coped with my PTSD. I found writing to be deeply therapeutic, not only for me, but also for anyone who would read my work, later on. I always wanted to study English Literature, but this was not an option for me, in Islamabad, other than at my A’levels. In time, I went on to study law, first in Islamabad, then in London, and finally in Colombo. I enjoyed the academic side of law very much, but truth be told, it was my love for the English language and my ear for a good story that got me through most of my law. I masqueraded as a corporate lawyer at a prominent law firm in Colombo for close to a decade thereafter, always knowing I was still a writer on the inside. And that I always would be.
- You write fiction, nonfiction, poetry, musical parodies, and rhyming stories. Is there a genre you’re particularly fond of and gravitate more towards? And why?
After becoming a mother (and reading literally hundreds of gorgeous rhymes to my kids), I tend to gravitate towards writing rhyming stories. There’s something very satisfying about this form. It’s quite challenging too, depending on the subject, and whether or not I am writing with an adult audience in mind. I have written several little books for my children, and a special series of legal stories in rhyming verse, for adults. Last Christmas I self-published a children’s book called Mr Choon Paan. It was a hybrid project, in that it was a parody of the Christmas pop song ‘Santa Baby,’ but it was also a rhyming story for Sri Lankan children. The book included a video link to an animated sing-along version of the story as well.
I really enjoy experimenting, and mixing and matching, when it comes to stories in rhyme. Many people tell me I take after my maternal grandfather, Herschel Pandittesekere, who I never met. He too was this strange combination of reluctant lawyer and passionate writer. He was well-known for his wit and for parodying popular songs, which he sang while strumming his ukelele. So I guess the rhymes and the parodies are in my blood.
- In the Commonwealth Announcement video, you mentioned that you had submitted several versions of the story before but that it was not successful. How many times did you submit versions of this? What made you keep at the story and what made you keep going?
I submitted the earliest version of ‘Principles of Accounting’ to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2019. Subsequently, possibly that same year, I submitted it, with a few tweaks, to the Himal South Asian Short Story Competition. It was rejected both these times, of course. In 2020, my friend Rajeev Wickramaratne, who is now a budding film producer in LA, worked with me to rewrite this story as a screenplay. We hoped to make a short film out of it, but with Covid lockdowns, me getting pregnant with my second daughter, and Rajeev going away to do his masters, that didn’t work out either.
In 2021, I submitted a whole other story to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and of course, nothing came of that story either. In 2022, still being very attached to the original story, I found myself constantly tweaking it, and working through its problems, every opportunity I got. Ironically, ‘Principles of Accounting,’ is about someone who is stuck in a rut of failure, who is trying desperately to come out of it – and there I was, caught in a very similar cycle, with this story never seeming to make the mark! So as I continued to work through it, it started becoming a bit autobiographical, in that, I wanted a breakthrough as much as I wanted one for my protagonist!
By the end of 2022, I decided to submit it one last time to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize – and the rest is history! All in all, it took about four years of going round in circles with this story, but it was totally worth it in the end, because I learned so much from the struggle.
- Who are your writing influences?
I can’t say my writing is influenced by any particular author, but I do have mentors and role models in the local literary ecosystem to whom I often turn for advice, feedback, and guidance. Sunila Galappatti has been one such person. Vivimarie VanderPoorten has been another. In terms of my writing practice, my mother has been a great influence, as she has taken all that she has been through, and used it to identify with, and encourage, others who are suffering from grief and hopelessness. My motivation for writing stories definitely comes from being around her. My cousin Sunara, who is a music teacher, has been another influence. She calls herself a “semi talented hard worker,” and I find this both hilarious and inspiring. Sunara has worked tremendously hard in extremely challenging circumstances, to hone her talents. Today she is not only a highly sought after music teacher, but also an accomplished long-distance runner. I’ve learned lots about humility and endurance from her.
Finally, there’s my husband Renouk, who, though a tennis coach by profession, is perhaps responsible for the most amount of growth in me, as a writer. I have learned so much from his sports ethic that has helped me work on my craft – from conditioning, to goal-setting, to training, to learning from failure, and dealing with setbacks – he’s been my non-writing writing coach!
- Who/what are you reading lately?
I’ve spent the past few years exclusively reading Sri Lankan writers. I’ve enjoyed Romesh Gunasekera, Shyam Selvadurai, Ashok Ferrey, Nayomi Munaweera and Shehan Karunatilaka. I have immersed myself in Sri Lankan writing not only because I enjoy it, but because I need to know what is out there, if it is a space I want to meaningfully contribute to. I can only imagine the breadth of subject-matter and imagination that is captured and expressed in Sri Lanka, in the Sinhala and Tamil languages.
Sadly I am too slow of a Sinhala reader and speaker, and have no understanding of the Tamil language at all, to be able to explore this. I know I am missing out on so much perspective. That said, the converse is also true: Sri Lankans who are unable to read and enjoy the English books being written by Sri Lankans are also missing out. It is sad that language is such a divisive thing. I hope to remedy this as much as possible in terms of my own work, by having it translated into Sinhala and Tamil, whenever I can. My children’s book, Mr Choon Paan, is being translated into Sinhala as we speak – and so is my shortlisted story, ‘Principles of Accounting’! I plan to have it translated into Tamil as well, in time. I want to be able to touch lives through storytelling, and I don’t want language to get in the way of this.
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