Gayathri loves traditional and lyrical poetry. The kind of poetry that gives the readers room to dig deeper and think. The kind of poetry that is well crafted and has substance.
“I’m very old fashioned in that sense. I love the classics.” Her latest poetry collection, ‘Tea House Blues’, published by The Jam Fruit Tree Publications is her third book and her second poetry book.
Gayathri M. Hewagama’s first book, ‘Conquering Karma: A collection of Island Tales,’ was nominated for the State Literary Awards. However, she is still hesitant to call herself a poet or a writer.
Only after she finished her PhD, she had the luxury of picking up any book off a shelf to read and experiment with her writing, instead of being obliged to read from the curriculum all the time. As an English literature scholar and a lecturer, Gayathri has been teaching and learning literature for more than twenty years. “When you are engaged with literature for too long, you talk about it, you dream about it and you learn the craft of poetry well.
But it also makes me feel too small to be acknowledged as a poet and makes me feel that everything has already been said by the great literary figures,” she said. “I’ve been scribbling ever since I can remember but the confidence to publish my writing only came to me after all my formal degrees were earned in 2022.” Her first poetry collection titled, ‘Amber Lights’ fell into a certain theme of sensuality and passion and is also an explo.