Seni Seneviratne

Seni Seneviratne is a writer, singer, photographer and performer. She was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1951 to an English mother and Sri Lankan father. She has been writing poetry since her early teens and was first published in 1989.

Her poetry and prose is published in the UK, Denmark, Canada and South Africa. Publications include: - Flora Poetica (Chatto & Windus); The Redbeck Anthology of British South Asian Poetry (Redbeck); Healing Strategies for Women at War (Crocus); Language of Water, Language of Fire, (Oscars); Talking Black, (Cassell); Bad Reputation, (Yorkshire Arts Circus); Miscegenation Blues ( Sister Vision Press) and children’s anthologies - Masala: Poems from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan & Sri Lanka (Macmillan); Free My Mind, (Hamish Hamilton);

She won second prize in the Margot Jane Memorial Poetry Prize, Onlywomen Press. She has given readings and performances in Vancouver, Cape Town, and around England.
Her poetry was broadcast on radio and recorded on audiotape, 'Climbing Mountains' and CD, 'Seven Sisters'. Her photography appeared in Feminist Arts News, Autograph Open Photography Show, Signals Changing exhibition and in a solo exhibition Moving Words

Her collaborations include: a mixed media installation - ‘Memoried Mosaics’ which was exhibited in Sheffield’s Open Up event in 2004 and at Outwood Grange College, Wakefield; an art song for piano and voice - ‘Dandelion Clocks’ commissioned for Leeds Leider Festival and performed in October 2005; ‘A Wider View’ -- verse accompanied by saxophone quartet, commissioned for Leeds launch of architecture week June 2006.

Wild Cinnamon and Winter Skin is her first collection of poems. She is currently working on a novel.

SELECTED CREATIVE ARTS ACTIVITIES

Residencies/Commissions
Writers in Rural Schools -- Herefordshire Council
Huddersfield Asian Women’s Refuge
Writing Renewal -- GOYH
Sheffield Young Carers Project

Workshops
Huddersfield Poetry Festival
Halifax High School Language and Drama Festival
Park Hill Primary, Sheffield
Outwood Grange Comprehensive, Wakefield
Rastrick High School
Meri Zindagi -- Asian women’s photo project
Coram Family Parent’s Centre
Sheffield College

Performances
Words Without Borders, an International Writer's Festival in Vancouver
Bretton Hall Festival of Literature
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
Raise Your Banners, Sheffield
Firvale Community Conference
Black Community Forum conference
Schools,Parents and Community Education Annual Conference

Editing
Meri Zindagi -- An anthology of poetry and prose by Asian women (2000)
See , Hear, Speak Out -- a resource pack for work with children and young people experiencing domestic abuse. Sheffield Domestic Abuse Forum (2001)

Production/Co-ordination
Awaaz -- The voice of women 10 minute video on work of project with Asian women (2001)
Awaaz CD-Rom -- Archive of organisation and showcasing of creative arts work. ( 2003)