Monday 30 June 2014

My complete writing profile in Burmese--translated by Dr. Khin Saw Nyein-



         အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စုေျခစိုက္ ျမန္မာအေမရိကန္ ၾကည္ေမေကာင္းသည္ တတိယႏွင့္စတုတၳကမာၻမ်ားရွိ လူမွဳဘ၀မ်ားကို စူးစူရွ၇ွသရုပ္ေဖာ္ေရးသားျခင္းအတြက္ အသိအမွတ္ျပဳုျခင္း ခံရသူျဖစ္သည္။ ထို႕အျပင္ အမ်ားႏွင့္မတူေသာ ဆန္းျပားသည့္ ရွဳေထာင့္မွ ေရးသားတင္ျပျခင္းကိုလည္း ေတြ႕ရသည္။ The Lovers ၀တၳဳတြင္ ခုႏွစ္လႊာခြ်တ္၍ ကျပျခင္းျဖင့္ ၀င္ေငြရွာသူ တဦး၏ ရွဳေထာင့္မွ တင္ျပျခင္း၊ Beast ၀တၳဳတြင္ လူသားမင္းသမီးအား ခ်စ္ခင္မိေသာ ျခေသၤ့ဧ။္ အေၾကာင္းကို ေရးသားထားျခင္းတုိ႕ကို ေတြ႕ရသည္။
        သူမသည္ အေမရိကန္စာဆုိမ်ား အကယ္ဒမီ (The Academy of American Poets) မွ ခ်ီးျမွင့္ေသာ William Carlos Williams ဆုကိုရရွိခဲ့သည့္အျပင္ ပင္စီလ္ေဗးနီးယား အႏုပညာေကာင္စီ (Pennsylvania Council on the Arts ) မွခ်ီးျမွင့္ေသာ ဆုကို Shaman ( နတ္ကေတာ္) ျပဇာတ္အတြက္ ရရွိခဲ့သည္။ ထို ဆုကို ဇာတ္လမ္းေက်ာရုိးအျဖင့္ စာပိုဒ္တပိုဒ္ ေရးတင္စဥ္ကပင္ ရရွိခဲ့ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။ ထို Shaman ျပဇာတ္ကို ဝါရွင္တန္ဒီစီတြင္ သရုပ္ေဆာင္သူမ်ားက ဇာတ္ညႊန္းကိုင္၍ ဖတ္ျခင္းအဆင့္သို႕ ေရာက္ရွိခဲ့ျပီး ျဖစ္သည္။
        သူမသည္ Wolf အမည္ရွိ လံုးခ်င္း၀တၳဳ၊ ၀တၳဳတိုမ်ား၊ ၀တၳဳလတ္မ်ား၊ တဦးတည္း ေျပာဆိုျခင္း (monologues ) တို႕ကို ေရးသားခဲ့သည့္အျပင္၊ Edward Albee က ခ်ီးက်ဳးျခင္းခံရေသာ Shaman ျပဇာတ္ႏွင့္ ဇာတ္ညႊန္းတို႕ကိုလည္း ေရးသားခဲ့သည္။
        သူမသည္ ကဗ်ာမ်ားလည္း ေရးသားျပီး ေျမာက္အေမရိကား၊ ဥေရာပႏွင့္ အေရွ့ေတာင္အာရွႏိုင္ငံမ်ားတြင္ မိမိကဗ်ာမ်ားကို ကိုယ္တိုင္ ရြတ္ဆိုသည့္ ပြဲေပါင္းမ်ားစြားကိုလည္း ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့ျပီးျဖစ္သည္။ သူမသည္ Pelted with Petals: The Burmese Poems ႏွင့္ Tibetan Tanka အမည္ရွိ ကဗ်ာစာအုပ္ႏွစ္အုပ္ကို ထုတ္ေ၀ခဲ့ျပီး၊ ဆက္လက္၍ ကဗ်ာစာအုပ္မ်ား ထုတ္ေ၀ရန္လည္း စီစဥ္လ်က္ရွိသည္။
        ၾကည္ေမေကာင္းသည္ Shee-Monkey Goes West (ရွီေမ်ာက္ အေနာက္သို႕သြားျခင္း ) ေခါင္းစဥ္ျဖင့္ ေ၇းသားထားေသာ စကားေျပႏွင့္ ကဗ်ာအတြက္လည္းေကာင္း၊ Shaman ျပဇာတ္အတြက္လည္းေကာင္း၊ Pew စာေပဆု ေနာက္ဆံုးဇကာတင္ အဆင့္အထိ ေရာက္ရွိခဲ့သူျဖစ္သည္။
        သူမသည္ ျပည္ပေရာက္ ျမန္မာဒီမိုကေရစီ လွဳပ္ရွားမွဳမ်ားအတြက္ ( ၁၃) ႏွစ္တိုင္တိုင္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ခဲ့သည္သာမက၊ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႕ အျပည္ျပည္ဆိုင္ရာမွ ထုတ္လႊင့္သည့္ အစီအစဥ္တြင္လည္း Senior Analyst အျဖစ္ ၁၉၉၇ မွ ၂၀၀၁ အထိ တာ၀န္ထမ္းေဆာင္ခဲ့သည္။ ထို႕ေနာက္ ျပည္ပေရာက္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ ဒီမိုကေရစီ အစိုးရႏွင့္ ဆက္ႏြယ္သည့္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ ရန္ပံုေငြ (The Burma Fund) အတြက္ Senior Analyst အျဖစ္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ခဲ့သည္။
        ၾကည္ေမေကာင္းသည္ ဖီလ္ဒဲလ္ဖီးယား (Philadelphia) ျမိဳ႕ရွိ ပင္ဆီလ္ေဗးနီးယား တကၠသိုလ္ (University of Pennsylvania ) မွ M.A. ဘြဲ႕ကို ျမိဳ႕ျပစီမံကိန္း (City Planning) ဘာသာရပ္ျဖင့္လည္းေကာင္း၊ Ph.D. ဘြဲ႕ကို ႏိုင္ငံေရး ေဘာဂေဗဒ (Political Economy) ဘာသာရပ္ျဖင့္လည္းေကာင္း ရရွိခဲ့သည္။
        သူမဧ။္ စာေပမ်ားတြင္ ေရးသားထားသည့္ အေၾကာင္းအရာမ်ားႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ နက္နက္နဲနဲ နားလည္သဘာေပါက္မွဳမ်ားက သူမ၏ ပညာေရး အဆင့္ကို ေဖာ္ျပလ်က္ရွိသည္။

Complete press kit for my 6 books + links--



About the author:
K.M.Kaung started writing fiction as a teenager in Burma.

She comes from a family of story tellers in Myingyan in Upper Burma. Her paternal grandmother May May Gyi, saw the last king of Burma - Thibaw, taken away on a steamboat on the Irrawaddy River by the British in 1886.

Kyi May Kaung's father U Kaung was named after the King's first envoy to the West, Kinwun Mingyi U Kaung.

Her father was a well known educationist and the first chairman of the Burma Historical Commission.

As a child Kyi May was privileged to have noted scholars and artists come to visit the house.

Dr. Kaung holds a doctorate in Political Economy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her work has been previously published in anthologies and literary journals, and she has read widely in universities and bookstores in N. America and Southeast Asia. From 1997-2001 she had a poetry and political commentary program on air, broadcast to Burma/Myanmar. Edward Albee praised her two act play, Shaman, and she has won Pew, Fulbright and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grants.

This is her first CreateSpace publication.

Upcoming are a full length novel Wolf, and a novella, The Rider of Crocodiles.

You may find her on her blog
http://kyimaykaung.blogspot.com
on Facebook
www.facebook.com/kyi.m.kaung
and at Kyi Kaung@kyikaung on Twitter.

Her web site is
www.kmkaung.com
She divides her time between N. America, travel in Asia and on cyberspace. Links to my recent publications of novellas and short stories.

1.   Originally published in Wild River Review on line, The Lovers is the story of a ballet dancer from Chile, who has to leave her native land for political reasons, and emigrate to Philadelphia, in America.
Burmese-born author Kyi May Kaung lived many years in West Philadelphia while pursuing her doctorate in Political Science.
The Lovers has vivid local color while traversing the uneasy life of political asylees. The Lovers, print edition
https://www.createspace.com/4767856?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026
The Lovers, Kindle edition
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lovers-Novellas-K-M-Kaung-Kaung-ebook/dp/B00JX8NZRU
2.   Black Rice is a Burmese man with very dark skin, almost purple, and almond eyes. What happens when he is captured in an ambush in Burma's delta in 1947, as ethnic strife rages, a year before Burma's Independence from Great Britain? Find out here as K.M. Kaung takes you on a heart stopping journey through life. An intensely flavored pill of a story in 48 pages. A view through oddly made eyes.

"You've got to be taught, to hate and fear, you've got to be taught, from year to year. . . ."

Song lyrics, Rogers and Hammerstein, South Pacific, the Broadway musical.
3.   The Rider of Crocodiles
Dr. Kaung was traveling in Thailand when a colleague told her his great great grandfather was not killed in Ayuthia in 1767 when the Burmese invaded, as he knew how to ride crocodiles.
print edition
Kindle edition
--




4.  Dancing like a Peacock and Koel Bird
My two stories, Dancing like a Peacock and Koel Bird are also available on Create Space, print edition. Published by Words Sounds and Images--
A seven year old girl is sent off across the border to earn a living and send money home to Burma. A computer expert finds--

https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=K+Kaung+dancing+like+a+peacock&sitesearch_type=STORE

My short story collection-

Dancing like a Peacock & Koel Bird, also includes Little Transparent Fetus Buddha.

Print (soft cover) + Kindle editions

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Peacock-Bird-Border-Stories-ebook/dp/B00JWZSL3C
5.  FGM—Kindle edition
FGM: A Story about the Mutilation of Women.
Dr. Aset, a trained gynecologist with several post graduate American degrees, lets herself be drawn into an inappropriate
relationship.

My novella FGM is now available on Kindle--http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJ3FUOE

there is also a print edition on the CreateSpace/Amazon store.

https://www.createspace.com/4738586
6.  Dealing with death and old age in the USA as immigrants--
No Crib for a Bed and Other Stories, Kindle Edition
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JW2ZD40
No Crib for a Bed, print edition
https://www.createspace.com/4768879?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026





Saturday 28 June 2014

Frankly it sucks--

Frankly speaking, it sucks.

Stupid place, the exile radio station where I threw 3 years of my life down the drain.
Still suffering from the after affects.
Ostensibly about "freedom of expression" but all about control and doing b junt's PR for them, or damage control, whatever.
Great waste of US taxpayer money.
Now the BBG Broadcasting Board of Governors, is rumored to be going to be dissolved, as it is "so corrupt."

This controls all broadcasting to foreign countries in the USA, both ASS-B and The Eagle's Voice (not their real names).

I still remember 2001 when I went to a presentation, at NED I think, on broadcasting to Afghanistan, and there, I heard a well known expert Barnett Rubin, talk to the woman from Pashto (Pastun section) who was almost fired, because she interviewed Mullah Ohmar, after 9/11.

The Lion was already dead, as of course he had been assassinated the night before 9/11 by someone posing as a journalist, with a bomb hidden in his camera.

BR expressed surprise that the woman was still there (at the Voice).

At the time renowned NYTS journalist William Safire wrote about it also.

Safire also wrote about the lax work atmosphere at the Voice.

I myself have seen a TEV correspondent from the Nigerian section harass and try to
"trap" Nobel Prize winning playwright Wole Soyinka with some fast talk at Pols and Prose bookstore in DC.

And it's impossible to count the # of times ASS-B has tried to ask hardball Qs of DASSK, or otherwise make her look bad on air, for instance by the womanizer talking to her as if she were his girlfriend.

I think they get away with it as no one cares about Burma, and there is the language and the cultural barrier, but it is high time people looked into it.

The former head of ASS-B bur even used "freedom of expression" as being listed above "promoting democracy" in their charter, and therefore as justifying attacking Daw Suu.

And they are all still around.

The rumor was before 2007, that they would be combined, the two stations, by their 10th year (10th year of ASS-B) but it managed to stay the axe by winning awards for its Saffron Revolution coverage, and thus throwing monk activist U Gambira to the dogs.

He was surrounded and arrested by signals located through his cell phone as "correspondents" tried to contact him for interviews, even after the crackdown when he was on the run.

He should have chucked the cell phone and fled to the Thai border, instead of keeping it and going back to Pakokku.

His entire family was arrested to get him to give himself in.

An ASS-B correspondent, no longer there, told me in 2007 shortly after the arrest, that the last time they called U Gambira, the MI (mlilitary intelligence) answered the phone and said, "We now have him under custody" and put the phone down.

I think this should remain on the consciences of ASS-B forever, as U Gambira is still suffering from brain damage due to the beatings.

And there are other things too, such as the death of a stringer in Burma in a motor-cycle accident.

This is all in contrast to my dear friend who is not rich, was suffering from kidney disease and finally had a transplant, and yet did activism for U Gambira's behalf from overseas, even sent someone to go and interview him on his release.

kmk
6-28-2014



Friday 20 June 2014

Congratulatory message from Moethee Zun--1988 Burmese student leader--

Congratulatory message from Moethee Zun 1988 Burmese student leader--

"Sayama!  You really did it.  You wrote and published all your books.  I am so happy for you."

About 2 days ago.
6-20-2014

I'm here also at LinkedIn-- a professional site

If you like LinkedIn I am here--

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/kyi-may-kaung/7/720/26b

But I find it cumbersome to use.

Thursday 19 June 2014

Final proofs of my full length novel Wolf arrived--

The final cover of my novel Wolf, about a fictional 1988 student leader and the women in his life--
The final cover wrap and the formatted interior for the print version arrived today from my book packagers.

It is looking very good, all 21 reviews are in the first pages, and it's the best unbirthday present anyone could ever have.

Thank you, V and J and BH. Great job, great job.

This cover is "the Asia market version"--the western market version is even more classy and is the one I will use first. Because right now I am focusing on this side of the world, as per my blog hits stats.

Sunday 15 June 2014

Cover reveal for my full length novel Wolf, about a fictional 1988 Burmese student leader--

Cover reveal for my full length novel Wolf

http://blueharvestcreative.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/cover-reveal-wolf-by-k-m-kaung/

May not be visible to all, but it will be out soon, so you will see it soon. Western market version--special.

My Preface to Report on Arbitrary Taxation in Burma by Dr. Sean Turnell and Dr. Alison Vicarey--

Preface to Report on Arbitrary Taxation in Burma --by Sean Turnell & Alison Vicarey.

by Kyi May Kaung--(written in 2010)

It gives me great pleasure to, if one can ever be "pleased" about the horrendous Burma situation, to be asked to write a preface to this comprehensive 93 page report on arbitrary taxation in Burma by Sean Turnell and Alison Vicarey of Burma Economic Watch, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. 

Up front, I want to state that I have been a board member of Burma Economic Watch since about 2005.  I share many of the views of Dr. Turnell and Dr. Vicarey, as published in this Report.

In 2002, when I was working for The Burma Fund, affiliated to the NCGUB, informally known as the Burmese democratic government in exile, I first met Sean in Gottenberg, Sweden, at a Burma Studies Conference, convened with much imagination I thought, by anthropologist Gustav Houtman.

Sean just came out of the woodwork at the conference, talking about money and banking in Burma as if he had really been there.  (At this point he was not, but he is the most grounded and focused of the economists working on Burma).

I met Alison Vicarey shortly thereafter, in Australia.  For those of you who do not know, Alison was one of the "Rangoon 18" from the Free Burma Coalition arrested in Rangoon for protesting Human Rights Abuses in the late 90s.  The kangaroo trials they were subjected to predated those conducted by the Burmese junta in 2009 against Aung San Suu Kyi, and earlier against James Mawdsley and Rachel Goldwyn, and later against Yettaw, Kyaw Zaw Lwin and many others.  (Note, 6-15-2014--A DVB reporter has been arrested and sentenced to one year in prison for reporting--i.e. doing his job).

This report is about arbitrary taxation.

The word "arbitrary" in plain English means, "without rhyme or reason, on a whim" and this is the situation the authors describe, based on responses from over 2000 entries and 2500 responses from the Generation 1988 Group's Open Hearts Campaign, in which Burmese living inside Burma risked their lives, essentially to kvetch about the abuses they suffered at the hands of the junta and its agents.  Trained human rights data collectors were employed.

The seasoned cynic or junta apologist may ask what another of the zillions of detailed reports about Burma could do.

My reply would be that this report is a gold mine of insights about Burma and takes the rare systemic or regime critical view, while being based on solid hands-on economic research at the micro-economic level.

In a practical sense, Vicarey and Turnell present "to do" lists for ASEAN, China, India and Thailad, as well as for the SPDC.  Whether they do it or not is the duty and responsibility of the governments concerned and of ASEAN. The researchers here have done their part.

The conclusion is that only a democratic system can lead to optimum distribution of resources, besides being humane and fair.  We surely need more independent special interest groups and a free press in Burma.

This report is presented in jargon-free language and everyone seriously interested in Burma should read it, as well as check out the Burma Economic Watch Website and the other writings of both the authors.

Well done mates!  (In Australese)

Kyi May Kaung (Ph.D.)
June 24, 2010.
Washington, DC.

All the links to all my recent short stories and novellas--



Links to my recent publications of novellas and short stories.
1. No Crib for a Bed and Other Stories, Kindle Edition
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JW2ZD40
No Crib for a Bed, print edition
https://www.createspace.com/4768879?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026
2. The Lovers, print edition
https://www.createspace.com/4767856?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026
The Lovers, Kindle edition
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lovers-Novellas-K-M-Kaung-Kaung-ebook/dp/B00JX8NZRU
3. Black Rice, print edition
https://www.createspace.com/4232789?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026
Black Rice, Kindle Edition
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rice-Novella-K-Kaung/dp/0615797520
4. Dancing like a Peacock and Koel Bird
My two stories, Dancing like a Peacock and Koel Bird are also available on Create Space, print edition. Published by Words Sounds and Images--
A seven year old girl is sent off across the border to earn a living and send money home to Burma. A computer expert finds--

https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=K+Kaung+dancing+like+a+peacock&sitesearch_type=STORE

My short story collection-

Dancing like a Peacock & Koel Bird, also includes Little Transparent Fetus Buddha.

Print (soft cover) + Kindle editions

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Peacock-Bird-Border-Stories-ebook/dp/B00JWZSL3C
5.  FGM—Kindle edition
FGM: A Story about the Mutilation of Women.
Dr. Aset, a trained gynecologist with several post graduate American degrees, lets herself be drawn into an inappropriate
relationship.

My novella FGM is now available on Kindle--http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJ3FUOE

there is also a print edition on the CreateSpace/Amazon store.

https://www.createspace.com/4738586
6.  The Rider of Crocodiles
print edition
Kindle edition
--


Monday 9 June 2014

Blanket call for translators--

I am also open to translations of all my work, including poetry, fiction and non-fiction

into
Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, German and French.

Initially, these will be Kindle books, and if you take it on, you will need to provide me with a open (not pdf) finished and edited manuscript.

I will then show it to an independent referee who will tell me if it's up to the mark or not (for languages other than Burmese and English).

I reserve the right to reject the work if it does not grab me, or if I feel it does not do justice to, nor comes up to the standards of the original.

At such time the permission to translate will also be withdrawn.

I have already withdrawn permission to translate into Burmese, my The Lovers from someone who had it for about 6 years.

Each project may take months to years depending on how fast you can work.

so far I cannot pay you, your payment will be one copy in print+the opportunity to have an on-going Master Class with someone like me, and your name on the book cover.

FYI, this is what many many publications, including Amnesty International, Rattapallax, and Norton have given me.

So don't get your nose out of joint.

As top flight literary translators will tell you, there is no money in translation.

I myself am not being paid for ANY of the major translations I have taken on (3).

And I have to see to their publication also.

So--you'll have to do it out of love for the work, at least till I sell in substantial numbers and get a mainstream publisher.

Even then, the sales might not be high.

For instance, how many of you have read

--Orhan Pamuk in translation.
--Rattawut
--Mo Yan--
Alai's Red Poppy?
--Ma Jian?

How many of you know the name Howard Goldblatt?

So there, that's the Offer for now.

You will have to sign a contract with me, and I will give you a formal letter of permission to translate a specific work.

You will start with a 3 page sample for a novella and one chapter for a novel.

I won't be able to pay you for the sample either.

Sincerely,
KMKaung
6-9-2014

Wednesday 4 June 2014

List of my currently available short stories and novellas on Amazon--



Links to my recent publications of novellas and short stories.
1. No Crib for a Bed and Other Stories, Kindle Edition
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JW2ZD40
No Crib for a Bed, print edition
https://www.createspace.com/4768879?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026
2. The Lovers, print edition
https://www.createspace.com/4767856?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026
The Lovers, Kindle edition
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lovers-Novellas-K-M-Kaung-Kaung-ebook/dp/B00JX8NZRU
3. Black Rice, print edition
https://www.createspace.com/4232789?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026
Black Rice, Kindle Edition
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rice-Novella-K-Kaung/dp/0615797520
4. Dancing like a Peacock and Koel Bird
My two stories, Dancing like a Peacock and Koel Bird are also available on Create Space, print edition. Published by Words Sounds and Images--
A seven year old girl is sent off across the border to earn a living and send money home to Burma. A computer expert finds--

https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=K+Kaung+dancing+like+a+peacock&sitesearch_type=STORE

My short story collection-

Dancing like a Peacock & Koel Bird, also includes Little Transparent Fetus Buddha.

Print (soft cover) + Kindle editions

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Peacock-Bird-Border-Stories-ebook/dp/B00JWZSL3C
FGM—Kindle edition
FGM: A Story about the Mutilation of Women.
Dr. Aset, a trained gynecologist with several post graduate American degrees, lets herself be drawn into an inappropriate
relationship.

My novella FGM is now available on Kindle--http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJ3FUOE

there is also a print edition on the CreateSpace/Amazon store.

https://www.createspace.com/4738586