In my 3rd year of college at Rangoon University, I didn't take English Literature but went to

Economics--much to the disappointment of U Myo Min--the Department Head.

I remember going to see him and explaining I could read English literature on my own, but for Economics I needed Guidance.

U Myo Min shook his head sadly: "It's not the same."

So I missed Mr.Raymond Adlam's brilliant lectures and sometimes my brother would talk to me about his classes--

Prometheus Unbound, Paradise Lost,Percy Shelley's heart that did not burn,Mary Shelley and Frankenstein--

Mourning becomes Electra, George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalian--

but they were just words in a stew, in chunks as Salman Rushdie might have said.

Adlam left in 1962 after the first coup.

So I never really got around to "reading English Literature on my own," until 1994 when I deposited my Ph.D. dissertation and I felt so empty I immediately started to write rushed summaries of all the stories pent up inside me.

After discussing with my friend Dr.Sharon Ann Yaeger who had TWO doctorates back to back, both in poetry--I took several classes with the Rittenhouse Writers Group and had my first short Story, published in America in The Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine. Thank you James Rahn and my classmates.

https://www.rittenhousewritersgroup.com/wordpress/

It's been an incredible journey.

Kyi May Kaung

7-1-2026