Around 180 attended the launch of Sri Lanka’s first collection of hint fiction, ‘Short & Sweet’, on 24th January at the 80 Club in Colombo. Treating the collection as a script, the Floating Space Theatre Theatre Company read out around 50 stories from the book (out of over 160). A recording of their performance can be heard below.
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanmuttu, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (the institutional home of Groundviews) noted that each time he has delved into the book, he’s discovered a new richness, because the book “stems from a commentary on our society at the private realm as well as to the much more searing and quite scathing comments that come out in the observations at the public realm about the conflict that we’ve been in, about disappearances, extra judicial killings… so here is a summation, in our words, of our society”. He went to say that “like the invitation to write, provoked, inspired 600 entries, now the book… hopefully will in turn inspire that many more ripples of hope and of defiance to make this a more decent society”.
His full speech can be heard below (6 mins).
Some photos from the launch are embedded below. You can also view all of them in full-screen and as a set on Flickr here.
‘Short and Sweet’ is available for purchase at all leading bookstores in Colombo and elsewhere in Sri Lanka, as well as online. More details on pricing and available here.