Saraid de Silva
Saraid de Silva is a Sri Lankan Pākehā writer and creative based in Tāmaki Makaurau. In 2025 her debut novel Amma was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, and named one of the best NZ books of 2024 by The Spinoff and Newsroom. She was the co-creator and co-host of Radio New Zealand's Conversations With My Immigrant Parents, a podcast and video series in which immigrant whānau across Aotearoa have conversations about love, ancestry, home, food, expectation and acceptance.
2025 festival sessions
Amma
Saraid de Silva in conversation with Julie Zhu
1.15pm-2.15pm, Saturday 19 July, Anderson Theatre, ASB Theatre Marlborough, $25
Saraid discusses her debut novel Amma, a moving exploration of family, memory, and the ties that bind us. The novel follows three generations of women growing up in their own time and place – Singapore and Sri Lanka in the 1950s, Invercargill in the 1980s and modern day London. Saraid will be interviewed by her friend, filmmaker and photographer, Julie Zhu.
Described in the Aotearoa Review of Books as a debut novel that feels like “an instant classic", Amma is set in several countries, and could only have emerged out of Aotearoa at this time. Amma enriches the New Zealand literary canon, and is one of many works from this generation whose roots lie on other lands. The novel is also about the changes and differences between generations of families, relevant regardless of when one arrives. It explores questions about understanding parents’ and grandparents’ experiences in other lands as well as ways to carry the past into the future.
Amplifying New Voices
Julie Zhu and Saraid de Silva in conversation with Courtney Clark Michaels
2.30pm-3.30pm, Sunday 20 July, Anderson Theatre, ASB Theatre Marlborough, $25
Join storytellers Julie Zhu and Saraid de Silva as they share stories from their acclaimed audio and video series, Conversations With My Immigrant Parents, produced for Radio New Zealand. In this series, Julie and Saraid share stories which centre the voices of tauiwi. This series brought parents and children together in deeply personal conversations about love, food, identity, ancestry, and the immigrant experience in Aotearoa. Julie and Saraid will reflect on the stories behind the podcast, their creative partnership, and their ongoing work to elevate underrepresented voices through storytelling.