rage-and-heartbreak

Rage and Heartbreak

The Poetry of Lakdasa Wikkramasinha
Editors: Vihanga Perera & George Braine
FORMAT: Paperback
AVAILABILITY: Published by Tambapanni Academic Publishers, 2025 – Buy Now
Also available via SL Books – Buy Now
ISBN: 9786245529179

Lakdasa Wikkramasinha (1941-1978) has been acknowledged as one of the finest Sri Lankan poets writing in English. The Sri Lankan born Booker Prize winner Michael Ondaatje says Wikkramasinha has written “some of the most permanent and iconic poems of this country”.

In a period spanning only thirteen years before his untimely death, Wikkramasinha published six collections of his English poems (and two collections of Sinhala poems as well).

Rage and Heartbreak fulfills the pressing need for a collection of critical writings on Wikkramasinha’s poetry. Essays authored by Gamini Haththotuwegama, Lilani Jayatilaka, Annemari de Silva, Nihal Fernando, Vihanga Perera, Madri Kalugala, Chandana Dissanayake, Nipuni Ranaweera, and George Braine are followed by Indrakanthi Perera’s brief memorial.

Most authors are practicing or retired academics, mainly in English literature. Some are published poets.

Author / Authors / Editors
Vihanga Perera (Ph.D., Australian National University) is an academic and researcher working at the Department of English, University of Sri Jayawardenapura. He is also a poet and novelist, an arts critic, and editor of creative work. He is a recipient of the Gratiaen Prize and the State Literary Award.

George Braine (Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin) taught English in four countries before retiring from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was acquainted with Lakdasa Wikkramasinha in the 1970s.