International Women’s Day Panel Opens the Final Day of ALF Gampaha 2026

8 March 2026  •  10.00 AM – 10.45 AM  •  Wet Water Resort, Gampaha

When the third and final day of the Asian Literary Festival Gampaha Edition 2026 begins on the morning of 8 March, it will open with a declaration. “Ink and Essence: Women Writing, Women Written” — scheduled from 10.00 AM to 10.45 AM at Wet Water Resort — is one of the most anticipated sessions of Sri Lanka’s first and only completely free international literary festival, and its timing on International Women’s Day is anything but coincidental.

At the centre of the panel sits Bhanu Mushtaq, the celebrated Kannada-language writer who made history in 2025 as the winner of the International Booker Prize for her short story collection Heart Lamp, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi. Mushtaq’s work is not quiet literature. Rooted in the everyday lives of Muslim women in Karnataka, Heart Lamp crackles with defiance, tenderness, and the specific gravity of lives that have been long overlooked by mainstream literary culture. Her stories do not merely portray women — they restore to them the complexity, voice, and interiority that literature too often withholds. For the International Booker Prize jury, the collection represented a writer of fierce originality; for readers across the world, it has become a landmark in South Asian feminist fiction.

Mushtaq’s presence at ALF Gampaha 2026 has already drawn significant attention. Earlier in the festival, the Sinhala edition of Heart Lamp — published by Subhavi Publishers and translated by D. M. S. Ariyarathne — was officially launched, marking a historic moment in Sri Lankan translation and publishing. That the same author now anchors the International Women’s Day panel gives the session an added resonance: her book is not only being read and celebrated, but actively entering the language and imagination of a new readership.

Joining Mushtaq on the panel are three writers whose voices span distinct literary traditions and cultural landscapes: Aneeta Sundararaj, the Malaysian author and storyteller known for her incisive explorations of identity and heritage; Chiranthi Rajapaksha, a Sri Lankan writer whose work engages with memory, womanhood, and the local literary canon; and Arefa Teshin, whose writing navigates the intersections of place, selfhood, and belonging. Together, the panellists bring a breadth that the session’s title demands — the conversation will range across who writes women, how women write themselves, and what happens when those two impulses meet, collide, or quietly sustain each other.

Moderating the discussion is Ciara Mandulee Mendis, a Sri Lankan writer and literary practitioner who brings both local authority and a cosmopolitan sensibility to the conversation. Her role as moderator reflects ALF’s commitment to centering local literary voices in dialogue with international guests — not as hosts who introduce and step aside, but as genuine participants in the intellectual exchange.

The session arrives on the third and final day of ALF Gampaha 2026, which runs from 6 to 8 March at Wet Water Resort in Gampaha. The closing day is a full programme in itself: alongside “Ink and Essence,” festival-goers can look forward to 13 other panels and workshops spanning literature, translation, mental health and the arts, climate writing, publishing, children’s storytelling, and more. That the day opens with a conversation about women and literature — on International Women’s Day — sets an unmistakable tone for everything that follows.

The Asian Literary Festival Gampaha Edition 2026 has been a landmark event in multiple respects. As Sri Lanka’s first completely free international literary festival, it has brought together authors, thinkers, and readers from across Asia and Europe in Gampaha — a deliberate choice to situate world-class literary discourse outside the capital, in a community that has long deserved it. The festival is organised by The Asian Group of Literature, co-led by Founder and CEO Pramudith D. Rupasinghe and Dr. Nadeera Nilupamali, CEO of the Asian Literary Festival.

“Ink and Essence: Women Writing, Women Written” asks the kinds of questions that literary festivals rarely pose with sufficient seriousness: What does it mean for a woman to write from the inside of her own experience? What happens to that experience when it passes through the hands of male authors, editors, or traditions? And what is the cost — and the liberation — of telling your own story in your own voice? Bhanu Mushtaq’s work, with its unapologetic rendering of marginalised Muslim women in Karnataka, offers one kind of answer. The conversation on 8 March will explore many others.

Admission to all sessions at ALF Gampaha 2026, including “Ink and Essence,” is entirely free and open to the public. The festival begins at 8.00 AM on 8 March, with “Ink and Essence: Women Writing, Women Written” taking the first panel slot of the day at 10.00 AM.

The Asian Literary Festival Gampaha Edition 2026  •  6–8 March 2026  •  Wet Water Resort, Gampaha, Sri Lanka

Free admission. All sessions open to the public.

Hasintha Thilakarathne