Amirthanayagam was born in 1960 in Colombo, Ceylon. When he was eight years old, he moved with his family to London, England, and at age 14, his family moved again to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he began writing. He studied at Punahou School in Honolulu and played cricket at the Honolulu Cricket Club. He then studied English Literature at Haverford College where he also captained their cricket team during his last year. Amirthanayagam has a Master's in Journalism from Columbia University. He is a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, based currently in Washington, D.C.
Work
He writes poetry and essays in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Haitian Creole. His Spanish collections include "El Infierno de los Pajaros, El Hombre que Recoge Nidos, "Sol Camuflado", Sin Adorno, lirica para tiempos neobarrocos. Ventana azul, was published by El Tapiz del Unicornio in February 2016 in Mexico City. In 2019, in Lima, "En busca de posada" was published by Editorial Apogeo, and Paolo 9 by Manofalsa. His two collections in French, Aller-retour au bord de la mer. and Il n'est de solitude que l'ile lointaine, were published in 2014 and 2017 by Legs Editions. He has also published The Splintered Face,Ceylon R.I.P., and Coconuts On Mars. The poem "So Beautiful" was broadcast on the PBS series The United States of Poetry. Univision reported on Amirthanayagam's Spanish poems in a news report in August, 1999. His poems have been anthologized in The United States of Poetry, World English Poetry, Language for a New Century, ALOUD: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Open Boat: Poems from Asian America, The Nuyorasian Anthology, Black Lightning, Living in America, The Four Way Reader #1. His poems have also been published in Grand Street, The Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, Exquisite Corpse, Hanging Loose, BOMB, and elsewhere in the U.S.. Poems written originally in French and Spanish have been published in Côte d'Ivoire, Haiti, Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua and Argentina. His translations of Mexican poet Manuel Ulacia were included in Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry''. and Fafnir's Heart. Translations of Jose Eugenio Sanchez have been published online. His poetic history of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Uncivil War, was published in 2013. Amirthanayagam read in the international poetry festivals in London, San Salvador, Rosario Medellin, Lima, Granada, Nicaragua, Santo Domingo, Honduras.
