Ma Thida

Ma Thida studied medicine in the early 1980s earning a degree in surgery, and also took up writing at a young age.[1] She said, "I wanted to become a writer because I want to share what I observe around me, like poverty."[1] Her interest in health care developed after falling ill as a child.[1]

In October 1993, she was sentenced to 20 years in Insein Prison for "endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organisations, and distributing unlawful literature."[2] In fact, she was actively supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and founder of the main opposition party in Burma.[3] She served nearly six years in unhealthy, mostly solitary conditions. She contracted tuberculosis without adequate access to medical care.[4] During this time she was awarded several international human rights awards, including the Reebok Human Rights Award (1996) and the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award (1996).[1] Ma Thida said, "Were it not for vipassana (Buddhist meditation), I would not have overcome the untold hardships I faced in prison."[1] In 1999, she was released on "humanitarian grounds" after serving five years, six months and six days.[2] She was released due to declining health, increasing political pressure and the efforts of human rights organizations like Amnesty International and PEN International.[3] Later she chaired the Pen Myanmar.[5] In 1996 she received the award of year's PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write but she was still in prison until 1999.[6]

From 2008 to 2010, she lived in the US as an International Writers Project Fellow at Brown University and a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University.[1]

Her first book was The Sunflower, which was only released in Burma in 1999, as it was banned upon international release in the early 1990s.[1] The book argues that the Burmese people have high expectations of democracy icon Suu Kyi that made her "a prisoner of applause."[1] The Roadmap (2012) is a fictional story based on events in Burmese politics from 1988 to 2009.[1] The Myanmar-language book Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard is a memoir, as the title suggests, about her early life in Sanchaung, imprisonment in Insein, and time in the United States.[4]

In the month of July 2016, the English translation of her prison memoir "Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard" was published worldwide with the title of "Prisoner of Conscience: My Steps through Insein" by Silkworm, publishing house in Thailand.[7]

She was honored with the 2016 'Disturbing the Peace' award given by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, for her humanitarian values and for having suffered unjust persecution for her beliefs.[8] In 2016, she was elected to the board of PEN International at 82nd PEN International Congress held in Galician, Spain.[9]

• The Sunflower (1999)
• In the Shade of an Indian Almond Tree (1999)
• Sweet and spicy honey mud (1999)
• Insight of colorful lights and beyond esthetic border (1999)
• One, Zero and Ten for Teens (2003)
• Message to Teen (2011)
• Translation of Japanese Women's Poems (2011)
• The Roadmap (2011)
• Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard (2012)
• A Letter for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (2013)
• The imperishable dictum (2014)
• Brown to Crimson, a personal memoir of experience of Brown University and Radcliff fellowship of Harvard University (2014)[10]
• What is independent citizen's spirit?, editorials from the Myanmar Independent news journals (2014)
• Youths who dare to live and compete, articles about youths all over the words who have some difficulties or disabilities but be capable of extraordinary works (2014)
• Nothing to lose but your life (Translation Work @ 2015)
• From Selfishness to Leaving from Fear, compilation of short stories, collection of 53 short stories (2015)
• Sunflower second edition (2015)
• Prisoner of Conscience: My Steps through Insein (Prison Memoir @ 2016)
• Writing of Ma Thida (2016)

• Ma Thida at Amnesty International