Emerging From The Cocoon: Literary Culture in Myanmar

Literary culture in Myanmar is slowly finding its voice, after being under one of the world's most repressive censorship regimes, which encased it for fifty long years. In 2012, as part of a new democratic transition, the military government made a surprise announcement that it was lifting the most onerous of its censorship laws.

Suddenly writers were free to write and speak about whatever they wanted—or so it seemed. But old habits die hard, and events in the lead-up to the recent landmark election proved that freedom of expression was far from guaranteed. Even the jubilant landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) doesn't guarantee the end of old censorship practices, but it certainly will create more room for dissent.