Writer profile: Mi Chan Wai
Mi Chan Wai (1953) was born in Tha Htone in Mon State. Her first article Kyaw Hein Wanted was published in the widely respected Oway journal in 1972. Under the pen name Thakhut Pann (Tha Htone) taken from the novel Thakhut Pann by well-known author Khin Hnin Yu she wrote poems for Tine Yin May journal …
In 1984, she wrote her first short story I, the raft man under her current penname Mi Chan Wai for Myeik Magazine. Since then she continued to publish stories featuring the lives of fishermen, divers and their families from the Myeik archipelago in journals such as Yoke Shin Tay Kabyar, Kalyar, Myarr Nat Maung, Mahay Thi and Myanma Dana.
Her collection of sea stories, Heart Broken Oyster and Other Sea Short Stories by Kyee Pwar Press won a National Literature Award in 2000
A novella, Anesthetic, on the empowerment of women in crayfish farming was translated into Japanese and included in a publication by the Toyota Foundation of Japan in 2003.
She has published over 21 books including novels, short stories and travel articles.
She now lives in North Dagon with her family.
*This is the eighth in a series of adapted profiles on writers taken from the 2017 anthology Hidden Words Hidden Worlds: Contemporary Short Stories from Myanmar