Ciara Mandulee Mendis

Ciara Mandulee Mendis is an award-winning Sri Lankan writer whose debut collection of short stories ‘The Lanka Box’ won the State Literary Award 2023 and the Godage National Award for Best Collection of Short Stories. ‘The Lanka Box’, and her earlier manuscript ‘The Red Brick Wall’ were shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2020 and 2021. Ciara was also shortlisted for the 2025 Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation for ‘Grandmothers, Granddaughters and Other Women’.

Her work has appeared in Riptide Journal (UK), Queen’s Quarterly (Canada), Southeast Asian Review of English (Malaysia), The Bombay Review (India), Himal Southasian (Nepal), Aleph Review (Pakistan), Brussels Review (Belgium), Contemporary Literary Review of India (India) and several other international journals. Her story published in ‘Anthology of Short Stories: Spring 2022’ (Fenechty Publishing, UK) received the Editor’s Choice Award. One of her short stories, along with its Bangla translation, was recently published in Bangladesh in the collection titled South Asian Stories of Women Writers.

Her travelogue “Gallivanting: A writer’s journey across six countries chasing sunsets, stories, and suspicious amounts of tea” which includes a chapter on India, was recently launched in Colombo. Ciara has been a speaker at several international festivals including the Cairo International Book Fair, Kathmandu Literary Festival, and the Ceylon Literary & Arts Festival.

She holds an M.A. in English Studies and, when not writing about rebellious women and whimsical cities, she is busy serving her country, quite literally, as a Civil Servant.