Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran

The process of creating was really emotionally healing for me and gave me a tool to process everything that happens. This creative writing course was instrumental to my formal writing practice: writing is a skill, and the more that you do it, the better you get at it. My husband suggested I do a creative writing course as part of my healing as I had always wanted to write. Throughout my twenties, like many people, I thought, “I’m sure there’s a book inside me.” I had a miscarriage with my third. I rarely feel lonely or bored because I’m frequently occupied by the stories inside my head. I was always imagining and spending time inside my head. This is ultimately other people’s stories, that they have wanted me and other storytellers to write.Īs a child I wrote short stories and read voraciously. I feel as a lawyer and a storyteller, and most importantly a Tamil person, it is part of my responsibility and duty to explore this – whilst bearing in mind the ethical framework around it. And when you speak to people outside the boundaries of Sri Lanka, so much information and disinformation exists. When you speak to people from Sri Lanka, there is a fear of telling the Tamil story and experience, and exploring justice for Tamil people. One of the metaphors I use in some of my work is the idea of ‘hiding the truth with the bodies,’ burying it deep in the jungle. So much of the Tamil story has been silenced – our people have been marginalised and silenced in their own country: their narrative has been manipulated, controlled and, in many places, hidden.

To retell these stories is incredibly courageous and requires resilience. What people have endured, suffered and survived – and still thrived through – is quite extraordinary. People are so generous and brave in their storytelling – they want to have their story told. One of the wonderful privileges of being a writer is that the universe brings people into your path. A quote from your book is ‘History is like your shadow, it follows you everywhere.’ How important is it to ‘write what you know’?

Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran