![]() Our partner San Mon Aung’s publishing house Ngar Doe Sar Pay (‘Our Literature’) is part of a new generation of independent publishers forging a new Burmese publishing scene and bringing it to the international stage. The independent publishing sector in Myanmar is small but growing. This is also the focus of the British Council’s Hidden Words Hidden Worlds project. Little ethnic literature is available, because of censorship PEN would like to help develop more writing and translation between Burmese and ethnic languages. ![]() PEN Myanmar president Ma Thida said that children need to be encouraged to read and write short stories and poems.Īs part of its drive to open up the Burmese literary scene, PEN Myanmar holds literary evenings in Yangon (in English), presenting non-Burmese literature, as well as writing from the other ethnic states of Myanmar. The level of education in Myanmar is low, so people read very little. Since its establishment in late 2013, PEN Myanmar has aimed to encourage dialogue between writers and readers, reaching out to different parts of Burmese society by holding literary discussions in public places across the country, including on trains and at bus stops. We hoped that Link the Worlds would be a first step towards changing this. At the same time, little contemporary Burmese writing is translated into other languages as there is a shortage of experienced literary translators who can translate out of the languages of Myanmar. This means that Burmese readers have difficulty gaining access to more contemporary writing and ideas from around the world, and Burmese writers find themselves isolated from their international counterparts. Although there is a need to nurture a new generation of literary translators, there is no systematic support in the form of workshops, or skills development in schools and colleges. Since the 1990s, translators have been making an effort to change the situation, but in Myanmar, translation tends to be a labour of love, with little or no financial remuneration. Censorship has meant that since the 1960s, little world literature – other than Soviet literature – has been translated into Burmese. Despite the opening up of the country three or so years ago, in today’s Myanmar many of the translations available in bookshops still date from this period. The Burma Translation Society was established in Rangoon in 1947, and high quality translations of the best literature from other countries became available to readers and writers in Burma. Literary exchange in Burma – now Myanmar – flourished in the years after the declaration of independence in 1948. Throughout the week, we explored ways to revive the flow of contemporary writing and ideas between Myanmar and other countries, particularly in South East Asia. Myanmar has only recently emerged from a long period of isolation. A truly international collaboration, other partners and funders included the British Centre for Literary Translation , Penguin Random House , the Taw Win Foundation, PEN International , the British Council and the National Arts Council of Singapore. Writers’ Centre Norwich had been planning the event for just over a year, in partnership with PEN Myanmar and the Select Centre in Singapore. In May 2015, I was lucky enough to visit Myanmar for Link the Worlds, a week-long series of translation workshops and literary discussions in Yangon. Kate Griffin, WCN Associate Programme Director, reports back from Link the Wor(l)ds in Myanmar, and discusses the issues faced by Burmese writers, translators and publishers.
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