Saffron shadows and salvaged scripts: literary life in Myanmar under censorship and in transition

This book tells an ethnographic story of a secret literary culture that has recently emerged from its cocoon.

Until 2012, Myanmar (also known as Burma) was ruled for fifty years by one of the most paranoid and repressive censorship regimes in history.

The military junta enforced strict reading and writing restrictions in line with their ideology, feared writers' potential to trigger change, and did their best to keep Western books and influences out of the country.

This book contains the experiences and recent output of nine Myanmar writers spanning three generations, featuring interviews and English-language translations of their work, along with political, legal, and artistic explorations.