Vivimarie VanderPoorten teaches English at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Her first book of
poems nothing prepares you won the 2007 Gratiaen Prize in Sri Lanka; She has since published
two other collections of poetry, Stitch your Eyelids Shut and Borrowed Dust, both of which won
national awards. Her work has also been published in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the UK
and in translation in Nepal, Sweden and Mexico. She is also a translator from Sinhala to English
and her translated poems have been published by the Commonwealth Writers Foundation. Some
of her poems and translations were recently published in an Anthology of Sri Lankan poets by
Bloodaxe Books. She recently translated three children’s books from Sinhala to English in
association with a Room to Read mentorship program.