[1][2] Ameena Hussein was born in 1964 at Colpetty (now known as Kollupitiya), in the Western Province of Sri Lanka.
[3] Hussein was generally regarded as a slow writer and it took about eight years to write her first novel, The Moon in the Water.
[6] Fifteen was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 1999, and was also nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award in the same year.
Most notably, she was an editor of Sometimes There is No Blood, a survey of rural women by the International Centre of Ethnic Studies.
[8] In 2003, she co-founded jointly with her husband Sam Perera the Perera-Hussein Publishing House to encourage future and emerging writers in Sri Lanka.