History of the Wadiya Group : English Writers' Workshop

In 1995, the English Writers' Cooperative of Sri Lanka, a body of professional writers, decided to encourage and foster people in honing their English creative writing skills. Anne Ranasinghe and other EWC members arranged a meeting, hosted at the British Council Colombo by kind invitation of then Director, Bill McAlpine. Newspaper and British Council publicity attracted some twenty-five people from all communities, mostly women, to the first meeting in September 1995, where we met Anne Ranasinghe, Punyakante Wijenaike, Sita Kulatunga, and Kamala Wijeratne. After self-introduction, we wrote short pieces, which the EWC members present critiqued fairly and honestly.

Arising from this, a small group, including Faith Ratnayake, Fahima Sahabdeen, Usha Perera, Sandra Fernando, Sunila Abeysekera and Maleeha Rajon decided to meet regularly to discuss their writing, and so the English Writers' Workshop came into being. The first few Workshops were at the Deva Surya Sena Centre, moderated by Anne and Punyakante. We later found a meeting place at the Wadiya Beach Club, with the kind intervention of Haig Karunaratne.

The last Saturday morning of each month became Writers' Workshop day, from 9 to 12, for members to present their short stories, poems and other work, and discuss established authors works. Our Supervisors at first were the well-known writers Haig Karunaratne, Sita Kulatunga, Anne Ranasinghe, Punyakante Wijenaike, later joined by Christine Wilson, Pauline Hensman and Kamala Wijeratne. Due to pressure of work, Pauline and Kamala later bowed out, but still maintain keen interest in our work.

The Group is informal, with one member acting as Treasurer. Two members in rotation organise the meetings. In 1999 the Group started a very popular evening mid-month meeting, hosted by various members. These twice-monthly meetings enable most of us to attend regularly.

Usually about fifteen members participate with two or three supervisors, reading short stories and poems on a pre-set theme, current social concerns or free choice. Our Supervisors always give pertinent advice and encouragement and we also benefit from hearing their latest work. We are greatly supported by these meetings of the mind, and keep frequent close contact. We read more widely, study different writing styles and experiment with techniques. Some members have also become members of the English Writers Cooperative.

In 2000, the Workshop became more widely known as the Wadiya Group, a tribute to our venue, which inspired our magazine title, "Waves". The first issue of "Waves" appeared in December 1997, with four subsequent issues. The sixth magazine will appear this year.

Currently, thirty-two members and five Supervisors form the Wadiya Group, perhaps now the only English Writers' Group in Colombo. This active forum brings together amateur and published writers interested and active in writing, reading and discussing literature. Many visiting writers from Sri Lanka and abroad have attended our meetings and given interest and support. More new writers have joined us and many of our Group have published their work or regularly contribute stories and articles to various print media.

Of the Wadiya Group, Punyakante Wijenaike and Neil Fernandopulle are Gratiaen prize winners; many others have submitted entries with Fahima Sahabdeen, Premini Amerasinghe, Wilfrid Jayasuriya, Sita Kulatunga and Sandra Fernando being short-listed over the past few years.