Romesh Gunesekera

Romesh Gunesekera
Romesh Gunesekera at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2012
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	Sri Lankan born British
Notable works	Reef; The Match
Notable awards	Fellow of Royal Society of Literature UK, Sri Lanka Ranjana National Honour

Romesh Gunesekera FRSL (born 1954) is a Sri Lankan-born British author, who was a finalist in the Man Booker Prize for his novel Reef in 1994. He is currently the Chair of the Judges of Commonwealth Short Story Prize competition for 2015.

Born in Colombo to a Sinhalese Christian family in 1954, Romesh Gunesekera grew up in Sri Lanka and the Philippines, where his father was a founder of the Asian Development Bank, and moved to England in 1971 and currently lives in London. His first book, Monkfish Moon, a collection of short stories reflecting the ethnic and political tensions that have threatened Sri Lanka since independence in 1948, was published in 1992, and was shortlisted for several prizes. His 1994 novel Reef was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Gunesekera travels widely for festivals, workshops and British Council tours. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature. He is currently one of the writers-in-residence for the charity First Story. He also has a short story related to the theme of animal poaching.

He was a judge for a number of literary prizes, such as the Caine Prize for African Writing, the David Cohen Prize for Literature, the Forward Prize for Poetry and most recently the Granta 2013 list of the Best of Young British Novelists.