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Lakmahal Community Library

Exploratory Residency

Residency brief

Lakmahal Community Library is a center for creative writing and storytelling, dedicated to fostering literary engagement in Sri Lanka. Since its inception in 2022 LCL has catered to its growing community as a hub for writers, poets, and thinkers, providing a space for exploration, reflection, and creation. It is a point of incubation providing emerging writers with resources and opportunities to learn from and engage with their peers and seasoned writers alike, honing their craft in a collaborative and stimulating environment.

For its first participation in the Villa Swagatham Residency program, Lakmahal will host one laureate between January and February 2027.. This residency will provide the writer with a conducive environment to work on their literary projects while engaging with the literary community of Colombo.

Lakmahal fosters a spirit of collaboration and intellectual exchange. Residents are encouraged to share their work through readings, discussions, and informal interactions in addition to at least one planned workshop/lecture. The residency is an opportunity for the laureate to engage with contemporary literary influences and cultural narratives while contributing to the local literary scene.

  • Thematic focus Creative Writing (Fiction, Creative non fiction, Poetry or Script writing)
  • Location Colombo, Sri Lanka
  • Dates Mid-January to Mid-February 2027
  • Length of stay 4 weeks

Our Space

Lakmahal Community Library is located in a historic colonial-era house in the heart of Colombo. The space is designed to inspire creativity, featuring reading rooms, quiet writing spaces, and a carefully curated collection of books. The lush garden and shaded verandahs provide a peaceful retreat for reflection and writing. Please note that the residency space is not equipped with air conditioning but has many fans.

Colombo is a vibrant and diverse city with a growing literary and arts scene. The resident will have the opportunity to explore independent bookstores, attend literary events, and engage with Sri Lankan writers and artists. The city’s cultural landscape includes art galleries, performance spaces, and historical sites, offering rich inspiration for literary exploration.

Frank Smith

Poet

I write what I call forensic poetry - poems built entirely from real documents, reports, coordinates, court records, never invention. It is a writing of the real, close to what is sometimes called factography. In Sri Lanka, I want to test this method on three broken infrastructures, a cable, a dam, a port, and let what they already record speak, undecorated, as verse.

Frank Smith (b. 1968) is a French poet, writer, and filmmaker based in Paris, founder of the Bureau d'investigations poétiques. His work builds poems and films from real documents - UN reports, court records, declassified war logs - on landscapes marked by state violence, borders, and displacement, from the Korean DMZ to the Calais coastline. His book Guantanamo was named best poetry book of the year in the United States in 2014 (The Huffington Post); Irak 24 heures, drawn from the WikiLeaks war logs, followed in 2025. At Villa Swagatam, he develops Paysages de la Coupure, on Sri Lanka's cables, dams, and ports.

Residency conditions

  • The resident will be provided with a private writing space within the library, along with access to the library’s collection, utilities and common areas.
  • Accommodation will be arranged in a comfortable guesthouse near the library.
  • The resident is encouraged to engage with the local literary community through readings, discussions, and informal gatherings at Lakmahal and other literary venues in Colombo.
  • The resident is invited to conduct a workshop/lecture or participate in public readings as part of Lakmahal’s literary programming.
  • The residency is exploratory in nature, meaning there is no obligation to produce a completed work. However, the resident is encouraged to acknowledge the residency in any future publication resulting from their stay.
  • Within three months of completing the residency, the resident is expected to submit a short reflection (1000–2000 words) about their experience at Lakmahal.

Eligibility criteria

  • The residency is open to up-and-coming creative writers working in any genre.
  • Proficiency in English is required.
  • Preference for those with experience or interested in engaging with South Asian literary traditions.

Past Laureates

Third Edition (2025 - 2026)
Selim-a Atallah Chettaoui Poet and performer