Roshi Fernando

Roshi Fernando was born and brought up in London by Sri Lankan parents. She has a BA in Philosophy and Literature at Warwick University, and a PhD in English and Creative Writing at Swansea University.^[2] In 2009 she won the Impress Prize for New Writers for her short story collection Homesick^[3]

Her book Homesick (2012) is a series of interlinked short stories featuring a cast of characters tied to an extended Sri Lankan family of migrants and their Westernised children in southeast London in the 1980s.^[4] It drew comparisons with Zadie Smith and Andrea Levy.^[5] The collection includes "The Fluorescent Jacket", shortlisted for the 2011 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.^[6] The whole collection was shortlisted for the 2011 Edge Hill Short Story Prize.^[7] In 2012, BBC Radio 4 adapted five of Fernando's stories, including The Clangers, The Turtle and Test, as short radio plays.^[8] These were repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2015.