Free E-book of Short Stories from Myanmar
The e-book of the Hidden Word, Hidden Worlds anthology is finally here!!
In 2012 the British Council sought to take advantage of new freedoms in literature and travel through a programme of workshops. The aim of the five-year literature programme in Myanmar was to give a voice to unheard and aspiring writers from the ethnic states …
The best stories from the workshops underwent transcription, translation and editing and the resulting multilingual anthology was published in 2015 in Myanmar. An English language anthology was published in the UK in 2017 with a multiple city book tour.
The 14 stories were written in 8 different scripts which were censored until 2012. They go beyond the familiar narrative of isolation and dictatorship to unveil a diverse landscape of people and place. From the child imprisoned in Yangon in the south to the jaded Kachin miner in the north the stories are each set in a different region and era. They reflect on Myanmar’s troubled past and pose questions for the future of a country undergoing a transformation.
Edited by myself and Alfred Birnbaum, this was a huge project created. Hundreds of copies of the print have been distributed for free and now, available for everyone, for free, is the e-book edition.
Some nice reviews of the anthology which I am very grateful for:
Fascinating and smart, the eclectic collection of short stories found in Hidden Words Hidden Worlds: Contemporary Short Stories from Myanmar is recommended as much for its ability to serve as a primer on the ethnic diversity of Myanmar as it is for the enjoyableness of the stories.
Singular not merely in its collaborative breadth, it is unprecedented: it is the first time in a half-century that such an ambitious and eclectic literary undertaking has been able to occur at all.
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.
The e-book is also available online as a PDF and a magazine scribd format.
This edition is the official e-pub format which will be recognised by all e-book readers.
You will need to a have dropbox account though. If you are in Myanmar, and you don’t have or cannot get a dropbox account, if you contact the British Council in Yangon, you may be able to get one of the few remaining paper copies of this once-in-a-lifetime anthology.
To download the e-pub of the Hidden Words anthology, free of charge, click here. The link will re-direct you to the official British Council literature website.