Dear ----,
I
have recently published 5 novellas--Black Rice (about a man with very dark skin
who is captured by a rival ethnic group in Burma in 1948), FGM (an Ethiopian
gynecologist is drawn into an inappropriate relationship while in Baltimore to
give a talk on Female Genital Mutilation), No Crib for a Bed (3 short stories
about old age and death as immigrants in America), Dancing like a Peacock (2
short stories concerning Burmese refugees on the Burma-Thai Border) and The
Lovers (about a political asylee from Chile who is reduced to working in a
strip joint in Philadelphia)—
The
Rider of Crocodiles (out very soon) is about a Siamese man in Ayuthia who was
not killed in 1767 when the Burmese king raided for the last time, because he
knew how to ride crocodiles.
Attached
is the soft cover design.
I
am an award-winning writer, originally from Burma. I was a Pew Finalist in fiction twice and won
a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Award, and the William Carlos Williams Award
of the Academy of American Poets.
I
have been anthologized in Norton’s Language for a New Century and in Gravity
Dancers, DC Women Writers, edited by Richard Peabody, in which No Crib for Bed first appeared.
Additionally,
fiction and non-fiction and poetry were in Foreign Policy in Focus, The
American Prospect, Open Democracy, Himal South Asia, Irrawaddy, Counter Punch,
Salon.com, Rattapallax, Cross Connect, Wild River Review, The Northern Virginia
Review, Poet Lore and The Philadelphia Sunday Inquirer Magazine (a short story
called Band of Flesh about conjoined twins).
I
am also in the last stages of publishing my full length novel Wolf about a 1988
student leader from Burma.
My
full length play Shaman was praised by Edward Albee.
Where
may I send print copies of my books for your appraisal or would you prefer pdfs?
My
doctorate in Political Economy was from the University of Pennsylvania, where I
studied on a Fulbright Fellowship. My
focus was on the lack of development in totalitarian countries.
I
worked in international radio and with the Burmese Democratic Government in
Exile from 1997-2011.
My
native language is English as I grew up in the UK and I have been in the USA for
30 years.
Sincerely,
Kyi
May Kaung (Ph.D.)
