Gratiaen Podcasts

Introducing the GRATIAEN PODS, a project presented in partnership with The John Keells Foundation and supported by The British Council Sri Lanka.
A series of video interviews and readings with acclaimed authors from Sri Lanka and around the world.

Episode 1: Sita Brahmachari talks to Haadiyah Marist

Sita Brahmachari is an award winning children’s book author whose debut novel, ‘Artichoke Hearts’ won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2011 and made it to The Guardian’s ‘50 best culturally diverse books since the 1950s’ list in 2014. ‘Tender Earth’ (2017) was honoured by the International Board of Books for Young People. In the past decade, Sita has also contributed to many short-stories, animations, and plays. In 2013, she co-created a theatre production inspired by Shaun Tan’s award-winning graphic novel ‘The Arrival’.

She is also a human rights ambassador for Amnesty International and has continued to put children’s, refugee and environmental rights at the forefront of her stories. She is the current Writer in Residence at Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants. Between 2021 - 2023, she was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow based at The Courtauld, and soon, she will take up a post as a Royal Literary Fellow at The British Library.

Sita’s latest title, ‘When Shadows Fall’ (illustrated by Natalie Sirett), was shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegies Medal for Writing. It is endorsed by Amnesty International, and selected as a Reading Agency Shelf Help Book as well as an Empathy Lab pick for 2023. She is an Associate Lecturer teaching on the module in Children’s and Young Adult Literature at Goldsmiths University, London.

Watch the episode now on Youtube

Episode 1: V.V. Ganeshananthan talks to Radhika Coomaraswamy

V. V. Ganeshananthan is a prominent American writer of Tamil descent whose works have appeared in esteemed publications like Granta, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Washington Post. She is the author of two notable novels: Love Marriage, published by Random House in April 2008, and Brotherless Night, released by Penguin Random House in January 2023. Love Marriage was praised by The Washington Post Book World as one of the best books of 2008, while Brotherless Night was named a New York Times Editors' Choice. Ganeshananthan's writing often explores themes of identity, belonging, and the Sri Lankan diaspora.

Watch the episode now on Youtube