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Bamboophobia
One of Burma’s foremost poets, Ko Ko Thett writes daring, experimental poems that combine light-hearted word play with deadly serious subjects in Bamboophobia, his second collection in English. Readers will find oddball lists, linguistic inventiveness, and sardonic humor applied at times to the quotidian (chairs, metaphors, potatoes), but also to a strangulating bureaucracy and the horrific treatment of prisoners. The book explores the brutal contradictions of life inside and outside of Burma. Thett writes in English and Burmese; thirteen poems in Bamboophobia are presented bilingually.
97 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2022
16 people want to read
About the author
ko ko thett
13 books5 followersko ko thett is a poet by choice and Burmese by chance. In between he is a poetry editor, literary translator, and anthologist of contemporary Burmese poetry.
In 1995, whilst studying engineering at the Yangon Institute of Technology (YIT), thett began editing and publishing Old Gold, a campus samizdat in Burmese. In the aftermath of Funeral of Old Gold, his second chapbook, he was arrested and detained for his involvement in the December 1996 student uprising. After his release in April 1997, he left both YIT and Burma for Singapore and then Bangkok, where he spent three years working for the Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific. In 2000, thett went to Finland where he took up peace and conflict studies at the University of Helsinki, before finally moving to Vienna to study with Wolfram Schaffar at the Institute for International Development at the University of Vienna.
His poems have been published in literary journals worldwide (from Griffith Review to Granta), and translated into Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, German and Finnish. The Burden of Being Burmese (Zephyr, 2015), a collection of ko ko thett's poems that have appeared in literary journals worldwide, is listed on ‘‘Nota Benes’’ by World Literature Today. thett's poems are anthologised in Best American Experimental Writing 2016 [BAX 2016], CAPITALS: A Poetry Anthology , The Borderlands of Asia: Culture, Place, Poetry, and Supplement among others. His work has been recognized with an English PEN Translation Award (2011) and an Honorary Fellowship in Writing at the University of Iowa (2016). After a whirlwind tour of Asia, Europe and North America for two decades, thett happily resettled in Sagaing in his native Burma-Myanmar in 2017. As of 2020 he is most likely to be spotted in the Golden Triangle area of Norwich, UK. thett writes in both Burmese and English.
In 1995, whilst studying engineering at the Yangon Institute of Technology (YIT), thett began editing and publishing Old Gold, a campus samizdat in Burmese. In the aftermath of Funeral of Old Gold, his second chapbook, he was arrested and detained for his involvement in the December 1996 student uprising. After his release in April 1997, he left both YIT and Burma for Singapore and then Bangkok, where he spent three years working for the Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific. In 2000, thett went to Finland where he took up peace and conflict studies at the University of Helsinki, before finally moving to Vienna to study with Wolfram Schaffar at the Institute for International Development at the University of Vienna.
His poems have been published in literary journals worldwide (from Griffith Review to Granta), and translated into Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, German and Finnish. The Burden of Being Burmese (Zephyr, 2015), a collection of ko ko thett's poems that have appeared in literary journals worldwide, is listed on ‘‘Nota Benes’’ by World Literature Today. thett's poems are anthologised in Best American Experimental Writing 2016 [BAX 2016], CAPITALS: A Poetry Anthology , The Borderlands of Asia: Culture, Place, Poetry, and Supplement among others. His work has been recognized with an English PEN Translation Award (2011) and an Honorary Fellowship in Writing at the University of Iowa (2016). After a whirlwind tour of Asia, Europe and North America for two decades, thett happily resettled in Sagaing in his native Burma-Myanmar in 2017. As of 2020 he is most likely to be spotted in the Golden Triangle area of Norwich, UK. thett writes in both Burmese and English.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 11, 2026
I was fortunate enough to stumble on and acquire a signed copy at AWP 2026.
The reference to Falling Water touched me.
It's also always really amazing to see writers who can write and talk about moments in time that feel lost to us. The final line of the acknowledgements talks about those who were inspirational to the author during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, a period which feels like a lost moment in time to me, one I find it difficult to write about. I also purchased Ko Ko Thett in companion with Bei Dao and Gregory B. Lee's China's Lost Decade to learn about and explore moments in history when oppression forced authors to write underground for a time. I guess its because I'm afraid of censorship and oppression in my own time and place, and seek out, for guidance or otherwise, artists who know the struggle better than I.
Thank you Ko Ko Thett.
The reference to Falling Water touched me.
It's also always really amazing to see writers who can write and talk about moments in time that feel lost to us. The final line of the acknowledgements talks about those who were inspirational to the author during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, a period which feels like a lost moment in time to me, one I find it difficult to write about. I also purchased Ko Ko Thett in companion with Bei Dao and Gregory B. Lee's China's Lost Decade to learn about and explore moments in history when oppression forced authors to write underground for a time. I guess its because I'm afraid of censorship and oppression in my own time and place, and seek out, for guidance or otherwise, artists who know the struggle better than I.
Thank you Ko Ko Thett.
Displaying 1 of 1 review