Burma Spring

Rena Pederson is an award-winning journalist, accomplished TED speaker, and author of five books. During her career, she has interviewed newsmakers ranging from Margaret Thatcher to Fidel Castro and Jane Goodall as well as five U.S. Presidents. She served on the Pulitzer Prize Board for nine years.  As Vice President and Editorial Page Editor at The Dallas Morning News, she received national recognition. During that time, Texas Monthly described Pederson as one of the most powerful women in Texas. Pederson also served as a Senior Speechwriter and Advisor for Strategic Communications at the U.S. Department of State. Her first book What’s Next? was featured on the Oprah Winfrey television show and her book, The Burma Spring, was featured in the Los Angeles Book Festival and the Texas Book Festival.

“The riveting story of Suu Kyi’s brutal imprisonment, deplorable maltreatment,astonishing inner strength, and ultimate survival is told with a historian’s appreciation for context and circumstance by journalist and former State Department speechwriter Pederson in a complex and sweeping history of Burma’s centuries-old struggle to maintain a closed society, yet manifest its power on a global scale.”