Anne Ranasinghe (born Anneliese Katz; 2 October 1925 – 17 December 2016) was a

Jewish-German The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish comm ...

born

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

n English-language poet. She is considered one of Sri Lanka's leading English-language poets, having won several international awards.

Early life

Anneliese Katz was born on 2 October 1925 in

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

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, to a

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family. A victim of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

's atrocities against Jews, she witnessed the ''

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

'' (night of broken glass), the burning of the Essen synagogue. In 1939, her parents sent her to England to an aunt she had never seen before. Within a week she was sent to a school 140 miles away to live among strangers and to learn English, a new language to her. Within six months

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

broke out and much later she learned that her parents had been murdered by the Nazis. Anne completed her studies at

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and trained to become a

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Charing Cross Hospital Charing Cross Hospital is district general hospital and teaching hospital located in Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The present hospital was opened in 1973, although it was originally established in 1818, approxim ...

, King's College,

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, Chelsea and Burden Neurological Institute.

Literary work

Ranasinghe began her writing career in the late 1960s after obtaining a Diploma in Journalism from

Colombo Technical College Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the f ...

. In 1971, she published her first poem collection, ''And the Sun That Sucks The Earth to Dry''. Some of Ranasinghe's well known poems include ''July 1983'', ''Plead Mercy'' (1974), ''A Long Hot Day'' and ''At What Dark Point'' (1970). She has published 12 books and has been translated into several languages in seven countries. From 1975, Ranasinghe worked for the

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's South Asian Publications Service in Sri Lanka.

Recognition

Ranasinghe was awarded Sri Lanka Arts Council Prize for Poetry in 1985 and again in 1992 and also for non-fiction in 1987. She won the Sri Lankan

State Literary Award The State Literary Award is a set of annual literary prizes by the Government of Sri Lanka under several categories. The awards cover fiction, poetry, translations, songs and cover designs. Works from Sinhala, Tamil Tamil may refer to: Peop ...

for best collection of short stories in 1994. She was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

, the nation's only federal civilian award.

Personal life

In 1949, Anne married D. A. Ranasinghe, a post-graduate student who later became a lecturer and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the

Colombo Medical School Ceylon Medical College was a public university, public medical school in British Ceylon, Ceylon. The college was established in 1870 as the Colombo Medical School. The college was based in Colombo. The college was merged with Ceylon University Coll ...

, and moved to Sri Lanka. She had seven children, four of her own and three from her husband's previous marriage. Her own four children are sons Ananda and Nihal, and daughters Shanthi and Renuka, all of whom live abroad.

Death and legacy

Anne Ranasinghe died 17 December 2016 in her Colombo residence in Rosmead Place, at age of 91. Sri Lankan school children study her poems for their

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

coursework in

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Bibliography

* Mascot and Symbol. 1997. * Desire and other Stories. 1994, reprint 1995. * You Ask Me Why I Write Poems. 1994. * The Letter and Other Stories. 1994. * At What Dark Point. 1991, reprinted and updated 1996. * Not Even Shadows. 1991. * Against Eternity and Darkness. 1985, reprinted 1985, 1988, 1996. * Of Charred Wood Midnight Fear. 1983. * Love, Sex and Parenthood. 1978. * Plead Mercy. 1975. * With Words We Write Our Lives Past, Present, Future. 1972. * Poems - And a Sun That Sucks The Earth to Dry. 1971 Source: ''nurse.info''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ranasinghe, Anne Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Jewish poets Sri Lankan poets English-language poets British emigrants to Sri Lanka 1925 births 2016 deaths Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany People from Essen