Mya Than Tint (1929-1998) entered Rangoon University in 1948, the year Burma gained independence from Great Britain, and received a degree in philosophy, political science and English literature in 1954. His writing career began in 1949 when his first short novel 'Refugee' was published in Tara Magazine. He published many short and full-length novels, documentaries and translated works in his 50-year writing career. Dataung Ko Kyaw Ywei, Mee Pinle Ko Hpyat Myi (Across the Mountain of Swords and the Sea of Fire) (1973) is considered to be his greatest masterpiece. He also wrote historical documentaries like 'Breeze over Taungthaman Lake'. Also a prolific translator of Western literature into Burmese, Mya Than Tint introduced his readers to world classics like War and Peace, Gone with the Wind, and Dream of the Red Chamber. He won the Myanmar National Literature Award five times for translation. As a political prisoner, Mya Than Tint was jailed from 1963 to 1972 by Ne Win's military regime that seized power from a democratic government in 1962. He was initially incarcerated in Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison, but later transferred with other political prisoners to the Coco Islands penal colony in the Indian Ocean until his release three years later. At the age of 68, he died in his home in Sanchaung Township in Rangoon U Win Pe has been at various times a radio reporter, cartoonist, writer and film director. His 1980 film 'Hninsi Ni Eain Mat' (Dream of a Red Rose) earned him a Myanmar Academy Award for best director in 1981. He started writing short stories in the late 1980s and became the first writer from Myanmar to be invited to attend the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. Taking the opportunity, while there, of speaking out about freedom of expression, he then found he could not return home. Remaining in America, he co-founded Radio Free Asia (RFA) and also contributed reporting for the VOA and the BBC. His three-month stay in America lasted 18 years. U Win Pe, now back in Burma, is also an internationally known artist; his medium of choice being watercolours.
"Most of the stories tell of great hardship, from poverty or dislocation and worse...there are many stories of the heroic efforts of women... The translation is excellent; U Win Pe's illustrations are elegant and evocative." Martin Morland, Planet Myanmar website, Spetember 1996
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