Vivimarie VanderPoorten teaches at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Her first book of poems nothing prepares you won the 2007 Gratiaen Prize and two other collections of poetry, Stitch your Eyelids Shut and Borrowed Dust, won national awards. Her work has also been published in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, UK, USA and  Malaysia. She is also a translator from Sinhala to English  and her translated work has been published by the Commonwealth Foundation.