Nu Nu YEE

  • Asia
  • South-Eastern Asia
  • Burma
Burmese

Nu Nu YEE (novelist, Burma; born 1957, Innwa) made her literary debut with the short story "A Little Sarong" in 1984, and has gone on to write over a dozen novels and four collections of short fiction and long short stories. Her first novel A Timid "What Can I Do for You" is a study of market vendors in Upper Burma, and her subsequent works have explored the lives of women, children, and urban and industrial workers in Myanmar. Her 1993 novel Emerald Green Blue Kamayut, depicting the urban poor, received Myanmar's National Literary Award. Her work has been put to the service of her country's most pressing societal needs; a play she wrote for the nongovernmental Population Service Centre in 1996 popularizes the use of iodine salt for goiter problems. Ms. Yee conducts lecture tours all over Myanmar. Her works have been translated into Japanese and English. She hold a BS from the University of Mandalay and a diploma in librarianship from the University of Yangon. She is taking part in the IWP through a grant from the Burma Project of the Open Society Institute. She writes under the name Nu Nu Yiy Inwa.

Happening Now

  • Congratulations to our colleagues Jennifer Croft and Aron Aji, who are among those serving as judges for the National Book Awards this year, in their case in the category of translated literature.

  • Ranjit Hoskote’s speech at the 2024 Goa Literary Festival addresses the current situation in Gaza.

  • In NY Times, Bina Shah worries about the state of Pakistani—and American—democracy.

  • “I went to [Ayodhya] to think about what it means to be an Indian and a Hindu... ”  A new essay by critic and novelist Chandrahas Choudhury.

  • In the January 2024 iteration of the French/English non-fiction site Frictions, T J Benson writes about “Riding Afrobeats Across the World.” Also new, a next installment in the bilingual series featuring work by students from Paris VIII’s Creative Writing program and the University of Iowa’s NFW program.

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