Wendy Law-Yone
Wendy Law-Yone (born 1947) is a critically acclaimed Burmese American author of novels and short stories.
The daughter of notable Burmese newspaper publisher, editor and politician Edward Michael Law-Yone, Law-Yone was born in Mandalay but grew up in Rangoon. Law-Yone has indicated that her father's imprisonment under the military regime limited her options in the country. She was barred from university, but not allowed to leave the country. In 1967, an attempt to escape to Thailand failed and she was imprisoned, but managed to leave Burma as a stateless person. She relocated to the United States in 1973, settling in Washington D.C. after attending college in Florida. In 1987, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Award for Creative Writing.[8] In 2002, she received a David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship from the University of East Anglia.
Her novels, The Coffin Tree (1983) and Irrawaddy Tango (1993), were critically well received, with the latter nominated in 1995 for the Irish Times Literary Prize. Her third novel, "The Road to Wanting," (2010) is set in Burma, China and Thailand and was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011.
The daughter of notable Burmese newspaper publisher, editor and politician Edward Michael Law-Yone, Law-Yone was born in Mandalay but grew up in Rangoon. Law-Yone has indicated that her father's imprisonment under the military regime limited her options in the country. She was barred from university, but not allowed to leave the country. In 1967, an attempt to escape to Thailand failed and she was imprisoned, but managed to leave Burma as a stateless person. She relocated to the United States in 1973, settling in Washington D.C. after attending college in Florida. In 1987, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Award for Creative Writing.[8] In 2002, she received a David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship from the University of East Anglia.
Her novels, The Coffin Tree (1983) and Irrawaddy Tango (1993), were critically well received, with the latter nominated in 1995 for the Irish Times Literary Prize. Her third novel, "The Road to Wanting," (2010) is set in Burma, China and Thailand and was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011.
