My Own Voice

Zeyar Lynn, a contemporary Myanmar poet, has already published seven collections of poetry, two anthologies of miscellaneous poetry translations of internationally acclaimed poets including Chinese, five translations of poems (Sylvia Plath, modern Japanese poetry, Japanese tanka, John Ashbery, and Charles Bernstein), and three books of collected articles on poetry and poetics. He also translates from Myanmar to English.He is known for having introduced post-Soviet Russian poetry, the New York School of poetry, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry, Flarf, and what is generally termed “postmodern” poetry into Myanmar.He was also the first to organize the UNESCO World Poetry Day event in Yangon, which has now become popular throughout the country.He has earned a reputation in Myanmar for having broken against the mainstream “Khit Por” (Myanmar for “modern”) poetry and set out a different path that is recognizably constructivist rather than expressionist, cerebral rather than emotional, while at the same time not losing sight of the political events in society. His Post-Khitpor Manifesto (2004) opened the way for the younger generation to look for a way out of the dominant and mainstream poetic model. While Khit Por is still mainstream, contemporary poetry has now become its alternative, or “Other.”He participated in the 2012 London Parnassus International Poetry Festival. His poems have appeared in English in Bones Will Crow: 15 Contemporary Burmese Poets.Currently, he lives in Yangon where he teaches English in a private school and also works as an editor of the triquarterly Myanmar poetry magazine called Poetry World.