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If you are a talented amateur poet or prose writer with a taste for quality literature, please email your authentic and original poems and short stories to [email protected] or post them to Passionate Pen, Sunday Observer, Associated Newspapers Ceylon Limited, Number 35, D. R. Wijewardene Mawatha, Colombo 10 to be featured on our new page Passionate Pen.

They may be written under any title, in any style and consist of 1,500 words or less. You can also look forward to outstanding interviews with leading personalities in the field of literature, in our quest to improve our readers' knowledge of quality literature.

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I want to get back to writing in depth about people - Punyakante Wijenaike

Tessy and Nanga, the two small hunting canines came running the moment they saw me. Despite their appearance they were quite aggressive and I would have had second thoughts about approaching them if there wasn't a gate between us.

They were irresistible for any dog lover, with their drooping ears and drooling eyes. The two Beagles were mother and daughter according to their owner Punyakante Wijenaike.

In fact although the house was situated in the heart of the city, it had an uncanny natural touch to it, with its feeding squirrels and crows. It was evident that grandma Punyakante was a lover of animals.

Punyakante Wijenaike the well known author of great works like Giraya, The rebel, Amulet and The enemy within has won innumerable awards for her literary works such as the Kala Suri in 1988, Gretien Prize in 1994, the Commonwealth Prize in 1996 and State literature award in 2001.

Moreover she has served on the panel of judges for the Eurasian region, Commonwealth writers' prize in 1989, Chairperson of the panel of judges for the Gretien awards in 1993 as well as in the panel of judges for English writing at the Cultural Department for many years. Making her an all the more appealing subject of interview for Passionate pen.

Q: Your novels have a tinge of Western flavour!

A: I thought my novels had a Sri Lankan taste. How ever I admit I was influenced by western writers such as Pearl Buck. In fact her novel Good earth induced me to write The Waiting earth.

Q: How do you feel about your work being adapted in to teledramas? Have they lived up to your expectations?

A: I am extremely pleased with my short stories The Visitor and The Possession adapted as Aganthukaya and Situwarayo. Another novel Unbinding is currently being examined by Susila Productions. Adaptations other than Giraya were up to my expectations.

In the case of Giraya they had to alter the plot slightly to achieve the amount of action required for a teledrama.

Q: Are you superstitious as suggested in some of your works?

A: I think I was, but I'm trying to get over it. Every time I saw a magpie the one-for-sorrow thought crossed my mind. But I still believe that nothing's as they seem and that there's this sixth eye.

Q: In one of your earliest novels, The Waiting Earth you had focused on rural living. Why did you change the focus?

A: When I started off I focused on simple people. When I wrote The Waiting earth I obviously had to manufacture characters matching to that of Good earth. On other instances I had to do a lot of research on things about rural life I didn't know much about. After writing Giraya I became more confident.

Q: Your novel the Amulet won the Gretien Prize, what difference had the prize made to your career?

A: Every time a writer receives a prize it gives a tremendous boost. But you musn't depend on it, but write for the love of it.

Q: You wrote a semi autobiographical semi factual memoir A way of life, do you plan to write something retrospective at this stage?

A: Sunset Years is about my husband's death and how I came to terms with it, that was in 2005. I am also planning to republish A way of life since it's out of print.

Q: Coming to terms was a pretty optimistic novel. Are you becoming optimistic?

A: May be. That's the only optimistic book I've ever written. I thought I must have a happy ending before I died.

Q: You were one of the pioneer writers of the 1960s, when there weren't too many great writers. What made you so capable of becoming a successful writer at such an intellectually discouraging time?

A: There were other great writers such as Ann Ranasinghe and Ashley Halpe. But the secret to my success is probably my aloofness, which actually forced me to communicate, even with my parents, through writing.

When I got married I found a lot of time on my hands during which I occupied myself by writing. I was always very much a loner and expressed my self through writing. Even now I dread speeches when ever I'm compelled to give one.

Q: Reading novels like The Rebel and The Enemy Within the reader gets the impression that public events like the insurgencies and the Central Bank bomb blast have an immense influence on them.

A: They weren't factitious, they were all based on facts. I had to interview the people who actually went through the ordeal. I am currently compiling a collection of short stories.

More and more things are happening in society that is making people rather despondent, I want to spotlight these events. I intend to expose these through my work, yet to be published, in my effort to make things better.

I won't go on about, whether the past was better than the present. But this division between the people has to stop, we must all act as Sri Lankans. Some kind of action must come from the people.

Q: Did the shock of public events of such magnitude make you give up other comparatively less important issues depicted in your earlier works?

A: Recently while going through The Third woman I realised it had such depth in terms of characterisation. That's the problem of writing about situations, you lose you depth in writing about people. I want to get back to writing in depth about people.

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