Nayomi Munaweera is the acclaimed author of Island of a Thousand Mirrors. Currently residing in San Fransisco, Nayomi is working on a new novel. Juggling a career and writing is something that Nayomi does well. Our cover girl Nayomi was faced with repeated rejection when she submitted her first manuscript Nayomi is now riding the crest of a wave of success. In an interview with Women at Work she speaks about the initial rejection she faced and how her life has changed since becoming an award winning author.

What does it feel to know that the book an American publisher rejected went on to be longlisted for the Man Asia Prize, the DSC prize and ultimately win the Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia in 2013?

Of course it’s terribly gratifying. It wasn’t just one American publisher that rejected the manuscript, it was a host of them not including my subsequent publisher, St Martin’s Press. At that point in 2007 and 2008 I just assumed that the book would never be published so it's hugely gratifying to see it out in the world and doing well.

How did you cope with that initial rejection?

As a writer you have to be very thick skinned about rejection. You get about 50 to 100 rejections for every acceptance, especially in the early stages of your career. I had spent 5 years writing this book while I also worked as a lecturer. When it didn’t sell I was of course disappointed, but I can't say I was terribly surprised. I didn't really expect that it would sell. Most authors have the manuscript of an unpublished first novel hidden in a desk drawer or on a file on their computer and I thought that that's what would happen to my first book too. It was painful but I looked at it as practice. Then I started working on a second book. I had a full manuscript of it in 2012. When I first approached Perera Hussein, they looked at both manuscripts and chose Island for publication. I'll always be grateful to them for taking a chance on an unpublished writer and starting off my career in doing so.

How has your life changed since you have become an author?

It's amazing that I get to do what I love as my work. It's a tremendous relief to be paid to spend my days writing. It's much harder to have a day job and carve out time to write. I know this because I've done it. At one point I had three different part time jobs so that I could pay bills but also have time to write. Now I don't have to fight to make writing time and therefore it takes less years to write a book than it did before. At some point I hope to be back in the classroom teaching writing but for now I'm writing full-time. Of all the things that have changed this really is the most profound one and I'm incredibly grateful.

What motivated you to write your first book?

I was a huge reader as a child and as an adolescent and when the time came I think I really wanted to read this book- a book about Sri Lankans going through the war etc. There were of course wonderful books by Sri Lankan authors- but I wanted to read this particular story so I felt this gnawing compulsion to write it. It was tremendously strong. I gave up a lot to write it- security, time, etc. But in the end the story wanted to be told and I had to tell it.

What project are you currently involved in?

I'm in the editing stages of a third novel. It will be published second (after Island) and by the same publishing house that will put out Island in America. It's still too early for me to talk about what it's about.

As a Sri Lankan living abroad, how important do you feel it is to keep in touch with your roots, especially your work with  Write to Reconcile?

It's quite important to me. Write to Reconcile was a profoundly moving experience for me as a writer and a teacher. It was wonderful to see youth from all parts of Sri Lanka, all ethnicities etc coming together to talk about their experiences of the conflict and ultimately to write about it. I think the process of meeting others from the "opposing" ethnicity and hearing their stories is incredibly necessary. It humanizes us to each other and lets us see that literally we are all capable of the exact same suffering. We edited and published an online anthology. It's available for free and I hope that many of you look it up. I wrote the Introduction and there are 23 stories from 23 different points of view. I was really honored to be a part of this project and working with Shyam Selvadurai was a dream come true.

By Tina Edward Gunawardhana