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Author Spotlight: Shyam Selvadurai
Shyam Selvadurai, a Sri Lankan-Canadian novelist born in Colombo, has revolutionized the Western literary scene by capitalizing on his Sinhalese and Tamil upbringing in Sri Lanka as a gay kid.
His first novel, Funny Boy (1994), was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and won the Books in Canada First Novel Award. Four years later, Cinnamon Gardens (1998) told the story of 1920s Ceylon to a Western audience. In 2004, he edited a collection of short stories titled Story-Wallah: Short Fiction from South Asian Writers.
In his new book, The Hungry Ghosts (2013), Selvadurai delves into the racial, societal and cultural differences between two countries – Canada and Sri Lanka – and the anxieties attached to coming out in South Asia.
The 2014 Bonham Centre Awards Gala recently celebrated the 'Power of the Word' by honouring Selvadurai, amongst other noted writers, for his contributions to the public understanding of sexual diversity in Canada.
I caught up with the novelist to hear his thoughs on sexual diversity, gay culture in South Asia and coming out as the first gay person in Sri Lanka.
Swati Bhatt Vyas: What does the word sexual diversity mean to you and how important it is?
Shyam Selvadurai: Well, it’s a catchphrase for writing about lesbian, gay, transgender or bisexual issues; or, in my case, for a representation in fiction. It is important to me because I am gay myself. The visibility for people like me especially in the South Asian context is changing slowly; what happened with the recent Supreme Court verdict in India that criminalized homosexuality, even though it is very dismaying, is that at the same time the issue became front and centre in the media. I think that’s a good thing. There were a surprising number of people who came out against the verdict; it was adding to that kind of voice, raising people’s awareness.
Shyam Selvadurai receiving the 2014 Bonham Centre Award/ Photographer: Christopher dew
SBV: You’ve always written stories with Sri Lanka as a backdrop. Is this a very conscious effort to address the issues back home and to reproduce from one's own personal experiences?
SS: I think it’s a conscious issue to write about a place that I know and that I feel a strong affiliation to, but in my new novel The Hungry Ghosts, I move away from that to writing a more diasporic novel that takes place partly here in Toronto. So I am looking at both the countries in a way.
I think my work is autobiographical, but I think of it as the autobiography of time and place and feeling, not an autobiography of plot and character.
SBV: What change must take place in people's mindsets to make it easier for the LGBT community in South Asia?
SS: I think it needs to be decriminalized first. I can’t stress enough how important that is, because once it’s decriminalized as it was here in the early '70s, early '60s, you have a sort of legitimate freedom to advocate for social change. But until then it is very hard and it places your life in a very precarious position as a gay, lesbian or transgender person, and that’s an issue.
In terms of changing people’s attitudes – it has happened, people are more willing to accept it than they were before. It’s not large acceptance, but there are more people I seem to find in Sri Lanka accepting of what is called a ‘queerness, sort of catch-all term of the whole thing.’
SBV: What is your advice to those out there who are still struggling? What would you tell them today?
SS: Well, I would say number one is that you have to find some community, so you don’t feel you’re alone, even if it’s just online, but preferably in person, so you have some sense of feeling that you’re not alone. I think that’s really important.
The second thing I’d say is be aware that you live in this country where it’s not legal and not acceptable, and so based on your own life you should decide whether you want to come out or not. I would certainly not say that everyone should come out or anything like that because I think it's based on your situation.
Featured Image: Kevin Kelly
Swati Bhatt Vyas
Author
With a master’s in Journalism from Mumbai University, Swati published her first book as one of the youngest female self-help authors in India. Later in 2011, she penned her second book. Since then she has worked extensively in print, web & broadcast media in India & Canada. She c...
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