The Galle Literary Festival is the first and only one of its kind in Sri Lanka. Every year the festival takes place in Galle, a charming city along the southern coastal tip of the paradise island.

UK-poets Roger McGough and Daljit Nagra, and contemporary UK writer Jill Dawson, were sponsored by British Council Sri Lanka to take part in the fifth consecutive Galle Literary Festival, which was held from 26-30 January.

All three writers were busy during the festival week. They performed readings, conducted workshops, took part in panel discussions, and were engaged in one-on-one interviews with local media. While Jill Dawson read from her novel, ‘The Great Lover’ over morning breakfast, Daljit Nagra conducted a workshop for ten eager writers. Roger McGough too was busy, as he went off-site into the paddy fields, to entertain an audience with some of his poems. He read some that were witty, some that were funny, while a few of them just made your heart stop for a moment.

While the city of Galle transformed into a world of poems, art, novels, writers, and readers, it buzzed with a total of over 1,500 locals and foreign expats, who all shared the common love for literature.

British Council’s involvement in the festival did not stop there. On 29 January, the Project English team visited Galle to hold a teacher training roadshow in the heart of the historical Galle Fort. In keeping with the ‘lit-fest’ theme, teachers participated in five workshops that covered topics such as ‘Poetry in the Classroom’ and ‘Brit Lit Web Resources’. The roadshow which was conducted in conjunction with the Regional English Support Centre in Baddegana and local NGO ‘Adopt Sri Lanka’, attracted a total of 150 teachers from across the Southern Province.

To maximise the visits of renowned writers Roger McGough and Jill Dawson, British Council held separate events before and after the festival at the offices in Colombo and Kandy.

Prior to leaving to Galle for the festival, Roger read some of his poems to the public at British Council Colombo and Kandy on 22 and 24 January respectively. The events, which were held as a separate entity to the festival, attracted a large audience number and were very well received.

Upon returning from Galle after the festival, Jill too performed a reading and also conducted a creative writing workshop for the public, at British Council Colombo. Her workshop which was titled ‘Making Characters Live and Breathe’ provided tips on how to create characters and make them seem more real and less paper-thin.  

Even though British Council sponsored Daljith Nagra could not attend the separate events held at the offices, UK writer Sandra Jansen who visited Sri Lanka to take part in the festival came to Colombo to conduct a workshop. Her workshop which was titled ‘Aspiring writers: Do you dream of being published?’, helped budding writers identify how to maximise their chances of breaking into the prestigious literary journal market.

British Council Sri Lanka’s involved with the Galle Literary Festival and the spin-off events and roadshows that were conducted separately, have strengthened and exemplified the organisation’s dedication to the arts, while building mutually beneficial relationships between the UK and Sri Lanka.

BRITISH COUNCIL SPONSORED WRITERS' PROFILES

Roger McGough Roger McGough is one of Britain’s best-loved poets for both adults and children. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme, Poetry Please and records voice-overs for commercials, as well as performing his own poetry regularly.

His autobiography Said and Done (Century) explores overnight fame with Lily the Pink, The Scaffold and Yellow Submarine which he helped write for the Beatles. He encounters Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Marlon Brando, Allen Ginsberg, Pete McCarthy and Salman Rushdie amongst others.

_________________________________________________

Jill Dawson Jill Dawson is one of Britain's most talented contemporary writers. She began publishing at the age of 22 by winning first prize in a national short story competition. She went on to win an Eric Gregory Award for poetry, and published her first novel, Trick of the Light, in 1996.

She is the author of six novels, editor of six anthologies of poetry and short stories, and has published one poetry pamphlet. Fred & Edie, her third novel, was shortlisted for both the Whitbread and Orange Prize, and was voted one of 50 essential novels by a living author.

_________________________________________________

Daljit Nagra Daljit Nagra was born and brought up in West London and Sheffield. He lives in London, and works as a secondary school English teacher. In 2004, his poem Look We Have Coming to Dover! won the Forward Prize (Best Single Poem), and this became the title of his first collection, published in 2007.

It went on to win the 2007 Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) and the 2008 Arts Council England Decibel Award. It relates to the experience of British-born Indians, and often employs 'Punglish' - English spoken by Indian Punjabi immigrants.

Look We Have Coming to Dover! was shortlisted for several further awards, including the 2007 Costa Poetry Award, and the 2007 Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize.