Ko Nyein (Mandalay) is a Modernist poet and short story writer. Born in 1945 in the city after which he takes his pen-name, his first poems appeared in the respected Moe Way magazine, such as ‘A Boat with Three Men’, and ‘A Man with a Rickshaw’ and later in the 1990’s his short stories were featured in Shwe Amyutae journal …
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Writer Profile: Kyaw Swar Htet
Kyaw Swar Htet (b. 1957) is another short story specialist from the second city of Mandalay. A medical doctor by training, his short stories, at least until 2000, were originally written in a blend of romance and medicine …
continue readingSadaik Short Reviews: On the Road to Mandalay
While many imported literary forms have been adapted by Burmese writers, it is the ‘wuthu saungbar’ which the writers have embraced and perfected. A masterwork of the blend in fact and fiction, this particular road, begun by Ludu U Hla in the 1950s, follows Mya Than Tint on a 1980’s literary tour of the country and …
continue readingWriter Profile: Chaw Ei Man
Chaw Ei Man (Mandalay) was born in 1973. Her first short story ‘No Affection’ was published in Myit Tan Shin magazine in 1998 and two years later her first full collection titled ‘Realistic Dreams and Other Stories’, culminating in a prestigious Shwe Amyutae award for ‘Fly to Mandalay’.
continue readingTurning the Pages at Kuthodaw Pagoda
With so many pagodas in Myanmar, it is easy to dismiss them all as alike. Yet, Kuthodaw pagoda is something special. Off a quiet road from the former palace walls, the Kuthodaw Pagoda, like all pagodas, is best visited at dusk, when the tiles are no too hot to walk on and when the bats start to come out the nearby banyan trees …
continue readingDelving through the Mandalay Cultural Museum
Though many of the museums in Myanmar have suffered from decades of neglect and underfunding, Mandalay Cultural Museum does hold a few literary gems. The Yadanabon Gazette: In 1854 Mandalay, King Mindon, a reformer of sorts and fully aware of the technological superiority of the invading British Forces to the south, commissioned the first Burmese language newspaper, the Yadanabon Gazette …
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