Roshi Fernando

Roshi Fernando was born and brought up in London by Sri Lankan parents, both of whom were teachers specialising in English and Education. Since Fernando was asthmatic as a child, she had to miss school often. But this did not stop her from learning. Her mother was able to bring her English literature to read which made the love of writing stronger later in her early adult life.[2] She was sexually abused by a family friend at the age of 11.[3] She did 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[4]

Her book Homesick (2012) is a series of linked 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.[5] It drew comparisons with Zadie Smith and Andrea Levy.[6] The collection includes "The Fluorescent Jacket", shortlisted for the 2011 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.[7] The whole collection was shortlisted for the 2011 Edge Hill Short Story Prize.[8] In 2012, BBC Radio 4 adapted five of Fernando's stories, including The Clangers, The Turtle and Test, as short radio plays.[9] These were repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2015.