Writing from My Heart

Authors

  • Shankari Chandran Independent Scholar

Abstract

This essay looks at what it really means for author Shankari Chandran to write "from the heart," blending personal stories, cultural roots, and the search for truth. Shankari shares memories, like watching her father dissect a goat, to explore how emotions such as love, anger, and grief drive her writing. It challenges the usual ideas about the heart, seeing it as a place of both struggle and connection. More than just emotional, writing becomes a way to share truths, seek justice,  and help others heal; an act of creating connection with others and with self.

 

The essay is adapted from a keynote written for the 2024 Whitsundays Writers Festival. The author would like to thank the festival organisers, Karen Jacobsen and Dr Julia Evans for their support.  

Author Biography

  • Shankari Chandran, Independent Scholar

    Shankari Chandran is an Australian Tamil lawyer and author of Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, Song of the Sun God, The Barrier, Safe Haven and Unfinished Business. Her fiction explores dispossession and the creation of community, and she has received multiple awards and listings, including the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023 for Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens. Shankari’s short stories have appeared in two acclaimed anthologies, Another Australia and Sweatshop Women (Vol 2).

     

    Shankari has spent two decades working as a lawyer in the social justice field, on national and international program design and delivery. She currently continues her work in social impact for an Australian national retailer. She is based in Sydney, Australia, where she lives with her husband and her four children.

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Published

2025-01-07

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 1 (2024): JASAL 24.1

Section

Articles

License

The copyright for articles in this journal is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal. By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use with proper attribution in educational and other non-commercial sectors.

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How to Cite

Writing from My Heart. (2025). Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 24(1). https://openjournals.test.library.sydney.edu.au/JASAL/article/view/20455