Sri Lanka’s minister for higher education has called on universities to organise programmes of poetry to help “bring together” the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority. According to a report in the Guardian, Rajiva Wijesinha, who recently published an anthology of poetry translated into English from Sinhala and Tamil, said: “The arts are important. They can only be a part of a much broader effort, but should not be neglected. Nothing will make everyone happy but you can reduce the intensity of grief and anger.”  

Sri Lanka is known for its rich literary tradition. However, the civil war forced some prominent creative artists, particularly Tamils, into exile - and one Tamil poet, based in Norway, was deported when he visited Sri Lanka in 2013. But last year local Tamil poets took part in a reading event in Jaffna, the Tamil-dominated northern city. More details