Punyakante wijenaike biography of christopher kennedy

As speakers Vijitha Fernando, Sumitra Peries and Lal Medawattegedera reflected on her work and her literary contributions over the past four decades, the quiet writer took the podium for a brief moment and chose to leave her audience with this quote:. That perhaps said it all. Of Punyakante, the writer, attuned to the society she lives in, alive to the changes, the conflicts, the contradictions, exploring and interpreting them for her readers.

She herself is still discovering the potential there is in silence.

Punyakante Wijenaike (born Colombo, 8 March ) was a Sri Lankan writer.

As with any writer after the publication of one book, comes thoughts of the next. Writing is still to her a daily pastime as it has been for so many decades, the only difference being that her time is entirely her own now, not smuggled in between domestic duties. This was a book which she quite frankly admits she never really had planned to write.

And as the thoughts and stories flitted in, she jotted them down. Stark and unvarnished, the poignant title story grabs the reader with its bleak despair. It is a familiar if not commonplace occurrence in society today, but few could invest it with the kind of understanding that Punyakante has. It was a quieter, more stable world, but Punyakante then fully occupied with her young family still felt the compulsion to write, portraying rural life with a frankness few would have expected from the sheltered housewife that she was.

Punyakante Wijenaike (born Colombo, ) is a Sri Lankan writer.

Many novels followed as she grew as a writer, taking in the changing life and mores of her beloved country with a perceptive eye. What she sees today is far from beautiful. It is a landscape of unmitigated brutality, violence and moral decay. She hears the wail of sirens or ambulances carrying the injured and the dead…. A frightening scene but she surveys it with the courage of a true artist, and she has accepted responsibility of recording it and commenting on it so that we can replace our squandered treasure of humanity, toleration and good sense.

Several stories and poems are drawn from the tumult and tensions of recent times.