Burma National Literature Award

Myanmar National Literature Awards are award presented to an author who has written a particularly lauded piece or body of work. There are awards for forms of writing ranging from poetry to novels. Many awards are also dedicated to a certain genre of fiction or non-fiction writing (such as science fiction or politics). Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony.Besides serving as Prime Minister, U Nu was also an accomplished novelist and playwright. In a work from the colonial period titled Yesset pabeikwe or It's So Cruel (Man, the Wolf of Man) U Nu describes how during the colonial period rich landlords were able to get away with just about any crime they wished to perpetrate.

The play The Sound of the People Victorious (Ludu Aungthan) that U Nu wrote while he was Prime Minister is about the havoc that Communist ideologies can wreak in a family. Strangely enough the first production of the play seems to have been in Pasadena, California. It later became a popular comic book in Burma, was translated into English, and made into a feature film at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s. The older generation in Burma can still remember having studied the play in their schooldays.

In the play Thaka Ala, published just before the 1962 coup, U Nu paints an extremely ugly picture of corruption both amongst the high-ranking politicians in power at the time as well as among the communist leaders who were gaining ascendancy. This is a play in the vernacular, a genre that hardly exists in Burmese literature. A translation into English was published in instalments in the Guardian newspaper. The play was critical of the current state of politics in Burma at the time (around 1960) and in this critical stance it resembles Thein Pe Myint's The Modern Monk (Tet Hpongyi in Burmese). Like The Modern Monk, it deals with scandalous sexual liaisons not much in keeping with traditional modes of Burmese behaviour.One of the greatest female writers of the Post-colonial period is Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay. Khin Myo Chit was another important writer, who wrote, among her works, The 13-Carat Diamond (1955), which was translated into many languages. The journalist Ludu U Hla was the author of numerous volumes of ethnic minority folklore, novels about inmates in U Nu-era jails, and biographies of people working in different occupations. The Prime Minister U Nu himself wrote several politically oriented plays and novels.

Other prolific writers of the post-colonial era include Thein Pe Myint (and his The Ocean Traveller and the Pearl Queen, considered a Burmese classic), Mya Than Tint (known for his translations of Western classics like War and Peace), Thawda Swe and Myat Htun. Aung San Suu Kyi,Aung Thin,Chit oo Nyo, Chit Maung, Dagon Khin Khin Lay, Hmawbi Saya Thein, Htin Aung, James Hla Kyaw, Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay,KaHti Ka Daw Myint Than, Khin Hnin Yu, Khin Khin Htoo, Khin Myo Chit, Ludu Daw Amar, Ludu U Hla, Mg Khin Min (Danuphyu),Maung Su Shin, Min Tin Mon, Min Thu Wun, Minfong Ho, Mya Than Tint, Myoma Myint Kywe,Nanda Thein Zan, P Moe Nin, Pascal Khoo Thwe, Pe Maung Tin, Richard Bartholomew, San San Nweh, Saw Wai, Saya Zawgyi, Taw Phayar Galay, Tekkatho Phone Naing, Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, Thein Pe Myint, Theippan Maung Wa, Thukha, Tin Moe, U Ottama,U Nu and U Pho Kyar were famous in Burma. Burmese Historians: Ba Shin, Than Tun, Thant Myint-U, Htin Aung, Sao Saimong, Myoma Myint Kywe ,and San C. Po were famous in Burma.Distinguished women writers, who have also been an ever-present force in Burmese literary history, include Kyi Aye, Khin Hnin Yu, and San San Nweh.

This award has been awarded since 1962 for distinguished in the following categories :

• Myanmar National Literature Award for Fiction
• Myanmar National Literature Award for Collected Short Stories
• Myanmar National Literature Award for Translation
• Myanmar National Literature Award for Collected Poems
• Myanmar National Literature Award for Political Literature
• Myanmar National Literature Award for Historical Documentary
• Myanmar National Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement Award

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References

1. ^ http://www.myanmar-information.net/infosheet/2005/051212.htm/