At just 19 years, Kithmini Rathnayake is a young literary find, making her presence felt with her creative and imaginative repertoire.
She has just finished her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with a Major in Cyber Security from the Edith Cowan University, and is awaiting her graduation. Kithmini also works as an associate analyst in the Cyber team at Deloitte.
She wrote her first book – ‘The best time to sleep’ while a student in Grade 3, and the ‘Rose Fairy’ was written while she was in Grade 4. Her other works include ‘Salenda and Griffinland’ – 2017, ‘Tigerlily’ – 2017, ‘Macediona, The Different Girl’ – 2018, ‘Oceana Stacy’ – 2019, ‘The Inhuman Humans’ – 2025 and ‘Life Story’ (Poems and Thoughts) in 2025.
Kithmini curiously says she doesn’t know how she ended up being a writer but it has always sounded right to her, probably a calling that comes to her from her blood.
Observer Muse contacted Kithmini to get to know more about her work and inspirations.
Q: What inspired you to start writing?
A: It was a free period at school (I was in grade 3) and my grade three English teacher came into our class. She asked all of us to write a story and collected our stories at the end of the period. At the parents’ meeting, she told my mom that I seem to have a talent for writing and the story (The Best Time to Sleep) could be published. Then I wrote another story (Rose Fairy) next year in the fourth grade and published both books together in that year (2015). Since then I’ve been writing and publishing children fiction story books. This time, I wrote and published a children fiction and sci-fi future-tech story book and a poetry collection.
Q: How do you come up with ideas for your stories or books? What is your writing process like? Do you plan everything out first, or do you just go with the flow?
A: I don’t really think and write stories. Most of my stories are dreams that I saw the night before or random stories that I made up in my mind while day-dreaming.
The poems were different though. I write poems through things I’ve seen, heard and experienced through life, from my point of view or other people’s point of views. I live in a village far from the city so whether I go to school or university or work, I need to travel for hours every morning and evening with my parents in the car. These car rides give me time to zone out and look out at the moving world. That’s when I mostly write poems in my notepad app, which are most of the poems that will be published in my poem book.
Apart from that, I’ve been lucky enough to experience different shades of life and it gave me the creativity and imagination with different perspectives and levels of understanding of life. I think that too has shaped my abilities in writing poems that have hidden meanings and could be understood by different people differently.
I don’t know how I ended up being a writer but I just randomly start writing and then go with the flow.
Q: What genres do you enjoy writing the most, and why?
A: I believe I mostly enjoy writing poetry because I love the rhythmic flow of it and the symbolic hidden meanings in almost every poem I write.
I believe my favourite genre is fiction in general because it doesn’t matter if it’s real or factually accurate. I could write anything and create a whole new world in my story. There’s nothing more amusing than being able to create a world you love that doesn’t exist and live in it through your imagination.
Q: Who are some of your biggest literary influences?
A: I adore classical literature, specifically William Shakespeare. I love the Latin essence and ancient touch in his creations.
I also love the poem “Ode on Melancholy” by John Keats and poems which beautify and displays a positive image of pain and torture that is looked down-upon by most people. I love reading books of different genres and authors from children fiction stories with fantasy and adventure like ‘Harry Potter’ by J.K. Rowling to adult fiction with romance and heartbreak like ‘It ends with us’ by Colleen Hoover.
Q: Do you have a favourite character you’ve created? Why do they stand out to you?
A: Eris, from my most recent storybook – ‘The Inhuman Humans’. She is definitely my most favourite character that I have created as of yet. She somehow resembles everything I am but also everything I am not and want to be. She’s chaotic, smart, understanding and quick with her words, just like me! However, she is also very sacrificing, extremely selfless, maybe even being super caring in silence and just so good! A level of kindness I am yet to match.
Q: What advice would you give to other young people who want to write and publish a book?
A: Start it. The start is probably the hardest part. At least it is for me. After the start, the story just flows in and fits perfectly. There’s so many times that I think to myself, I should have written that down because when you find inspiration, the build-up just flows right in.
Even if it doesn’t, don’t feel discouraged. It’s not an overnight success. You need to read a lot and find inspirations that lead you to write something worth reading. Don’t stress or feel pressurized. Write as freely as possible.
Q: How did you feel when you first saw your book published or in stores?
A: I felt happy, genuinely. A sense of achievement too! It felt like I’ve become someone. At first, I was very young so I simply felt like reading and writing more but as I grew older, it felt both empowering and fearful at the same time because it gave me a realization of the level of power I hold to influence people and the way they think and view the world.
As empowering as it felt, it also struck a certain fear in me of how responsible I am for what I write and how people view it.
Q: What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from your book?
A: I believe that my readers would be able to grasp different messages from different books of mine but I firmly believe that I do give-out a few common themes like “female empowerment”, “never give-up”, “sacrificing one’s own self for the better good”.
Q: Where do you see yourself as a writer in the next few years?
A: I want to try writing a story book series and more poem collections. I also want to be a consistent reader and writer. I hope that in the next few years I get to gain more knowledge and have better vocabulary through my reading and I get to write better stories and poems.
