Date/Time: Thursday 20th July 2023, 6.30pm to 8.00pm

Venue: Culture Lab, Newcastle University

This ground-breaking anthology of Sri Lankan and diasporic poetry features over a hundred poets writing in English or translated from Tamil and Sinhala.  It brings to light a long neglected national literature and reshapes our understanding of migrational poetics and the poetics of atrocity.  Poets long out of print appear beside exciting new talents; works written in Sri Lanka converse with poetry from the UK, the US, Canada and Australia.

We are delighted to feature at this year’s Masala Festival the three co-editors of Out of Sri Lanka, Vidyan Ravinthiran, Seni Seneviratne and Shash Trevett in conversation with the host Preti Taneja, Director of NCLA and Professor of World Literature and Creative Writing.  They will be reading from their own work, and will also be introducing recordings of a selection of poets featured in the anthology. The event will include a Q&A. 

Presented by GemArts, Bloodaxe Books and Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts.

GemArts award-winning Masala Festival is a week-long festival celebrating a mix and blend of the finest South Asian Arts and Culture, packed full of performances, exhibitions, events, workshops, pop-ups and demonstrations, presented in venues, places and spaces across the North East. GemArts Masala Festival runs from 17th to 23rd July 2023 - visit www.gemarts.com for the full programme.

Free event, and all very welcome.