Starved nation tucks into a feast of words at Myanmar book festival
Myanmar's first international book festival drew the country's guiding light, leading writers and a home crowd intrigued by the give-and-take of it all, writes Kate Whitehead
Media scrums aren't usually associated with literary festivals, but they happen when Aung San Suu Kyi is involved. Myanmar's first international book festival, the Irrawaddy Literary Festival held from February 1-3, drew an impressive line-up of international heavyweights, 120 Myanmese writers and "the Lady", herself a writer.
Suu Kyi has achieved so much it's easy to overlook the fact that she also has two books to her name: Letters from Burma and Voice of Hope. She's almost as passionate about literature as she is about politics. "My years of house arrest weren't hard because I had books," she told the huge crowd who turned out to hear her speak. "They give you a chance to enter a different world from your own."
The turnout for the festival at Yangon's Inya Lake Hotel was impressive. Three thousand people passed through the hotel doors on the Saturday, something that would have been unthinkable two years ago when festival director Jane Heyn suggested the event to Suu Kyi. "Not only getting the visas for the international writers, but even having a meeting with more than a certain number of people was prohibited then," says Heyn, wife of the British ambassador to Myanmar. But that didn't stop Suu Kyi agreeing to lend her support - if there came a day it could be done, she'd be behind it. Neither could have predicted the changes that would come so soon - the move to a civilian government and the opening up of the country after five decades of military dictatorship.
With Suu Kyi on board as patron, followed by BBC correspondent Fergal Keane and writer and founder of the Jaipur Literary Festival William Dalrymple, Heyn had little trouble attracting more big names from the literary world.
Like many of the visiting authors, Indian poet and writer Vikram Seth agreed to come because of who was involved and where it was being held. "Although Burma is a neighbour of India, I've never actually visited before. As for the cast of characters [fellow writers], I've seen them in many different environments."