Here’s Who We Are

Hi,

I am Sharmini Jayawardena, founder/writer/editor/poet @
www.leafblogazine.com

Armed with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Language from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, and experience in advertising copy-writing with Minds Bozell Pvt. Ltd., I venture forth in my endeavour to give you Leaf Blogazine, the online magazine.

Do check out About Leaf Blogazine for more information on the Blogazine.

My passion to bring out a magazine together with other writers and artists took off the ground finally, and here I am.

I am a writer, editor, poet, turned political essayist, journalist and reporter, with the following books published to my credit, which you may find here on Amazon. The Kindle e-version of these are now available and other work of mine are in the pipeline.

I draw inspiration and strength from many English writers and poets, and other writers whose work have been translated into the English Language. The presence of two greats, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edgar Allen Poe adorn my upcycled and repurposed credenza. My most favourite creative people of all time being poets William Blake and Geoffrey Chaucer, followed by playwrights William Shakespeare  and Euripides.

Here’s  a favourite poem of mine by Blake –

JERUSALAM

I was editor of Options, the journal of the Women and Media Collective, based in Sri Lanka, and founder/editor of the Kelaniya University’s magazine, BLINK, which continues to be in publication.

My work is published in other publications including reviews by writers on my own work, in journals, newspapers, TV and radio.

I managed my own dehydrated fruit and vegetable company prior to having taken ill in 2008.

Numerous interests of mine are well documented in the different categories of Leaf Blogazine, which you will no doubt enjoy reading. Cooking, baking, growing and tending plants, making fairy dwellings and miniature fairy items, watching movies, taking pix, reading, writing and most of all taking a listen to radio music, are my favorite pastimes. My love of books possibly, has taken me into the beautiful world of journal  making, which has become a favourite hobby of mine of late.

The posts to the Blogazine have been planned and written entirely from my smartphone since 2017, with the additional use of a notebook app.  A gift of this handsome gaming computer has seen much of my work been done from here, since 2021. Acquiring a sewing machine has lead me to thinking of putting it into good use in the making of my journals and in some sewing projects I have in mind. Future endeavours will be updated to this page as I go along.

Update on 21st August 2023: Mixing drinks as in cocktails, has been a surprising pursuit I have been involved in, in the past months. I made my first cocktail, a Gimlet in mid February 2023, and there was no turning back for me. I truly enjoyed creating these drinks and making those who partook of them, happy.  All of my attempts at mixing drinks appear on Gournome, so you too can indulge in them.

Sumiitra Sooriaarratchi, writer/illustrator/photographer for www.leafblogazine.com
is our in house web developer. He holds a Bachelor of IT (AI), from Wawasan Open University, Penang, Malaysia. Sumiitra Sooriaarratchi was a Team Lead at Grab.

He is presently Team Lead at Delivery Hero, Malaysia.

Sumiitra has varied experiences in banking and tech start-ups.

He played rhythm guitar with the band Skies Are Red, a Malaysian rock band and is a fervent fan of rock music. An environmentalist, he is a political animal, among other matters!

Sumiitra speaks Mandarin Chinese, Bahasa Melayu, Vietnamese, Sinhala and Thai apart from being literate in the English language.

In addition he is a painter. His success in doing his own business painting T-shirts for rock bands in Colombo, Sri Lanka, is noteworthy.

He’s a sports person, being primarily a basketball player, and also loves to cook.

Sumiitra is responsible for
www.leafblogazine.com
coming into fruition just as much as I did.

Our other contributors –

Vincent Poturica is Associate Professor of English at Mendocino College, Ukiah California, U.S.A.

So there you go, ourselves in a nutshell.