Writer Profile: U Pe Myint
U Pe Myint(b.1949): Born in Rakhine State, U Pe Myint trained as a doctor but has won much acclaim as an influential figure in political journalism, fiction writing and translation. He has published over twenty-five books, includingThose Who Sell Things for Human Use and other stories, a collection of short stories that …
won the 1995 National Literary Award. In 2007 he won the respected Shwe Literary Award for a collection of essays titled Let there be no learning, no reading and no books. An early graduate of the Iowa Writers Program, he is also the former editor of Peoples Era journal, an Interim Press Council member and Chairman of the Myanmar Literature Development Committee. After the November 2015 Elections he was appointed as the new Minister of Information under the NLD where his reputation as a defender of literary freedom has come under criticism.