{"id":91341,"date":"2015-03-04T11:50:21","date_gmt":"2015-03-04T16:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=91341"},"modified":"2024-07-03T14:36:13","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T18:36:13","slug":"novelist-and-journalist-ruveni-freeman-94-reads-at-muskie-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2015\/03\/04\/novelist-and-journalist-ruveni-freeman-94-reads-at-muskie-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"Novelist and journalist Ruveni Freeman ’94 reads at Muskie Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ru<\/a>

Ru Freeman ’94 is a novelist and a blogger for the Huffington Post on literature and politics.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Language Arts Live<\/em> series at Bates College presents novelist and Huffington Post<\/em> blogger Ruveni Freeman in a reading from her work at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, in the Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.<\/p>\n

The Language Arts Live<\/em> readings, sponsored by Bates’ English department, are open to the public at no cost. For more information, call 207-786-6256.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Huffington Post<\/em>, Freeman said that her writing is inspired by “things that strike me, and the things that do are most often social injustice and personal relationships.”<\/p>\n

Hailing from a family of writers (“and many boys,” she notes) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Freeman came to America to study political science at Bates. A member of the Bates class of 1994, she went on to earn a master’s degree in labor relations from the University of Colombo.<\/p>\n

Though she resides in Pennsylvania, Freeman calls both Sri Lanka and America home and writes, she says, about the people and countries underneath her skin.<\/p>\n

Freeman has worked in humanitarian assistance and workers’ rights on several continents. Her political journalism on American foreign policy has been disseminated in multiple languages, including English and Farsi.<\/p>\n

Her political background is inextricably woven into the narratives of her creative fiction. Her debut novel, A Disobedient Girl<\/em> (Washington Square Press, 2009), set against the explosive backdrop of class and prejudice in Sri Lanka, focuses on the complicated friendship between a servant girl and the wealthy, spoiled daughter of the family she serves.<\/p>\n

A Disobedient Girl<\/em>, which was described by author Aryn Kyle as “a lush, sweeping epic about desire and betrayal, hope and perseverance,” has been translated into seven languages.<\/p>\n

Freeman’s second novel, On Sal Mal Lane<\/em> (Graywolf Press, 2013), explores the relationships in a Sri Lankan neighborhood in the years leading up to the country’s 1983-2009 civil war. Diego Baez of Booklist praises Freeman for “blend[ing] the journalist’s loyalty to fact with impassioned imagination.”<\/p>\n

Praised by The Boston Globe as “an achingly gorgeous heartbreaker,” On Sal Mal Lane<\/em> was named Best Indie Fiction of 2013 by Library Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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