Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe

Father Cabraal’s Recipe for Love Cake is Ramya’s debut novel. It won the 31st Gratiaen Prize in 2024. She also writes poetry, plays, non-fiction, fiction and features. Her most recent book of poetry, Requisites, was published in 2025 by the Mica Press, UK. She was longlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize of Ireland in 2011. TimesOnline, UK, selected her work for its 2009 collection of contemporary war poetry. Ramya’s first book of poems, There’s an Island in the Bone, won the State Literary Joint-Award in 2011. She was joint runner-up to the UK’s Guardian Orange First Words Prize in 2009. Her non-fiction works include Rhythm of the Sea (on the Asian Tsunami of 2004) and Trinity (on a missionary school established in 1872 in Ceylon). Her poetic play, Water for Kings, was staged in Colombo in 2024 by the Mind Adventures Theatre Company. She lives in Sri Lanka.