Lucas Stewart's Blog, page 14

Northern Short Story Festival

Had a great weekend in Leeds at the Northern Short Story festival, where Uschi Gatward, SJ Bradley and I read from our stories in the Resist: Stories of Uprising anthology.  It was lovely to be able to talk to a full room about the stories, the process and the importance of such stories in the current political climate in the UK.

Many thanks to James Nash for his questions and a big thanks to SJ, Fiona and everyone else who is making the Northern Short Story Festival ‘the’ place to be for sho...

Exhibition of author Dagon Tarya’s Life

This week, leading Burmese publisher, Seikku Cho Cho commemorated the centenary of author Dagon Tarya in a four day exhibition of his work and life held at the Lokanat Gallery.

Born U Htay Myaing in Ayeyarwaddy Region in 1919, he published his first story in the Tekkatho Theippan Magazine in 1933 under the pen name Myaing Thazin.  He would go on to write and publish for the next 70 years under 53 different pen names but it is as Dagon Tharya (named so due to his publications in the pre-war Da...

Yu Ya

Yu Ya (1987) is the youngest scion of one of Myanmar’s most famous literary families.  The only woman in Myanmar to hold both a BA and MA in creative writing, she has won awards in interstate poetry competitions at township and state level.  She has published over 40 short stories, poems and essays for several of the leading literary journals in Myanmar including Shwe Amyutae, Thouk Kyar, Yati and Padouk Pwint Thit.  She currently works for BBC Media Action contributing to radio dramas on soc...

Sayar Lay Ko Tin

Sayar Lay Ko Tin (b.1947) is a writer, editor and translator.  Born in Yangon in 1947 he has spent 14 years in prison in the 1960’s, 70’s and 90’s for his political activities.  His first poem was published in 1985 in Sabei Phyu magazine and he has since gone on to publish 15 books, fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including his most recent best-seller ‘Last Days of Politicians’ featuring the men he encountered during his imprisonment .  He is most well-known for his English to Burmese transl...

Hidden Words Reviewed by Ko Ko Thett

Very grateful to Ko Ko Thett for a thoughtful and detailed review of the Hidden Words, Hidden Worlds anthology:

‘The book should serve as a first stop in English for anyone who would like to traverse the complex literary landscapes of Myanmar. Isn’t it ironic that stories from the ethnic languages, which have long been suppressed, have now been re-written in the languages of their erstwhile oppressors? As far as I am concerned, this kind of irony is most welcome.’

To read the rest of the revi...

Saw Lambert

Saw Lambert (1941- 2015) was born in a small village in Karen State close to the Thailand border.  As a teenager he boarded in the nearest high-school, forty miles away, and later graduated with a degree in Chemistry from Mawlamyine University in Mon State.  Having been denied permission by the Socialist Government to study bookbinding in the UK, he instead pursued a career in education becoming headmaster of several State schools.  After retirement he moved to Hpa-an and while he served the...

31 Reasons Why Publishers Need to Rethink Myanmar

If you buy enough books on Myanmar from foreign writers you start to notice something eerily familiar about them all.  It’s not just the content, though travel memoirs and political narratives are perennial favourites and Myanmar does seem to be becoming a popular ‘exotic’ setting for romance writers.

No, it’s something else.  The covers. 

When it comes to designing the front covers of their next work on Myanmar, many publishers seem to slip into a default mode, where a nation of such geograp...

Sai San Pyae

Sai San Pyae (1991) is an ethnic Shan writer born in the northern town of Lashio, Shan State.  He graduated with a B.E (Mechanical) degree in 2013 from Lashio University of Information and Technology.  He currently works as a Basic Computer tutor at the Kham Ku Centre, a Shan youth community organisation housed in the grounds of the Shan Culture and Literature Association.

*This is the eleventh in a series of adapted profiles on writers taken from the 2017 anthology ‘Hidden Words Hidden World...

Exhibition of Writer Letyar Tun’s Photographs in Denmark

Author, editor, translator and media development specialist Letyar Tun was recently in Denmark to promote an exhibition of his photographs.

Hosted by the Dignity – Danish Institute for Torture and funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Beyond the Prison Gate, exposes the transition former prisoners undergo as they struggle to adjust to a new life outside the walls.

A former political prisoner himself  (18 years, with 14 years on death row), Letyar’s showcased photographs form part...

5 Books on Amazon from Ethnic Writers

More and more books from Myanmar writers are becoming available on Amazon, Smashwords and Kobo.  Here’s five from authors from the ethnic communities:

Profile of a Burma Frontier Man by Vum Ko Hau

Written by the most decorated ethnic Chin, Vum Ko Ha from Thuklai in the Northern Chin Hills.  ‘Profile of a Burma Frontier Man’ is a memoir of sorts, written while he was posted in Indonesia as Myanmar’s ambassador.  He privately printed the book in Bandung and intended it to be given as gifts to h...