Sri Lankan writer and former journalist Kanya D’Almieda has been awarded the regional prize for Asia for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2021.

Her piece, ‘ I Cleaned The—’ was selected from over 6,000 entries and speaks of ‘the dirty work: domestic labour, abandonment, romantic encounters behind bathroom doors, and human waste, which is to say—the things we leave behind.’

Kanya was educated at Bishop’s College and Asian International School in Colombo before moving to the States where she studied political science and creative writing at Hampshire College.

She also holds a MFA in Fiction from Columbia University’s School of the Arts and spent six years as a reporter and then Bureau Editor for the Inter Press Service (IPS).