Suresh Ariaratnam

Suresh Ariaratnam has worked in the book industry for over twenty-three years, primarily as a literary agent, focussing on representing authors from Black and Asian communities. He remains involved in helping to ensure the equitable treatment of marginalised people, in the creative economy and more generally, through advocacy and activism.

As a non-executive director for NHS Dorset HealthCare and NHS Somerset, he is especially interested in the broader socio-economic determinants of health and their relationship to inequalities, and in a holistic understanding of wellbeing which champions the interdependency between personal, societal, and planetary health.

Suresh also serves as co-chair of Literature Works, and as a trustee of the Theatre Royal Bath, and the Trussell Trust, as a well as a member of the British Library Advisory Council. In 2022, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset in 2024.

Image credit: Joe Short