Suwanda Sugunasiri

Suwanda H. J. Sugunasiri, who was born in Sri Lanka when it was known as Ceylon, has published poetry in English and fiction in Sinhala, and edited a collection of short stories and a monograph on South Asian literature in Canada. Other non-fiction works include works on multiculturalism in Canada and a couple of works on Buddhism. He completed a Ph.D. in 1978 at the University of Toronto with a thesis entitled: Humanistic Nationalism: A Language-Based Model of National Development, With Particular Reference to Post-colonial Nations. He is the founder of the Nalanda College of Buddhist Studies, an independent college, and member of the Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College at the University of Toronto.

Poetry

Celestial Conversations: Poems

Toronto: Nalanda Pub. Canada, 2006.
PS8587 .U36 C44 2006

Publisher’s Synopsis

What comes through in these poems is the poet’s knack for turning the most ordinary to the most extraordinary, through refreshing imagery, succinct language and precise structure, inviting the reader to join in an exhilarating fun. Nature, travel, Buddhism and advancing years provide much of the context for the collection.

Poetry

The Faces of Galle Face Green: Poems

Toronto: TSAR, 1995.

Poetry

Obama-Ji

Toronto: Nalanda Publishing Canada, 2009.
Open Access Version from t-space repository at the University of Toronto

Poetry (Chapbook)

Waves of Cuba: Poem

Toronto: NPC, 2009.

Fiction

Untouchable Woman’s Odyssey: A Novel

Toronto: Nalanda Publishing Canada, 2010.
PS8587 .U36 U68 2010
Open Access Version from t-space repository at the University of Toronto

Anthology (Short stories)

The Whistling Thorn: South Asian Canadian Fiction

Edited by Suwanda Sugunasiri.
Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1994.
PS8239 .W55 1994

Synopsis (from the editor’s intro.)

“The characters in these stories, like the whistling thorn tree in the African bush, live their quiet ways in the wilderness of life, whistling paeans of joy and bearing the thorns of pain, roots reaching out to wherever they would find sustenance.”