Pira Sudham
| Born | Pira Canning Sudham Isan, Thailand |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Thai English-language author |
| Alma mater | Victoria University of Wellington |
| Subject | Thailand's social-political transition |
| Website | |
| www |
|
Pira Sudham (Pira Canning Sudham) is an author of Thai descent. He was born in a village in Isan in northeastern Thailand. At age fourteen, he left Isan for Bangkok to become a servant to Buddhist monks in a monastery where he attended secondary school. Later, he entered Triam Udom High School, before gaining a place at Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. He won a New Zealand government scholarship to read English Literature at Auckland University and then Victoria University of Wellington, where his first story was published by New Zealand's leading literary quarterly Landfall. Since then, Pira Sudham has been writing short stories, poems, and novels in English. He has not produced any literary works in the Thai language.[1]
Influences
Pira Sudham's literary works, particularly "Monsoon Country" and its sequel "The Force of Karma" portray social and political transition in the shadowed kingdom, involving one of the richest men in the world and several prominent European personalities. They include a formidable German composer, a Bavarian orchestra conductor, an English antiquarian, a University of London graduate (the Yorkshire blond) and an impoverished Thai family living in the northeastern region of Thailand. The works cover the political turmoil and a massacre of pro-democracy activists in October 1973, a massacre of students at Thammasat University in October 1976 and the killing of protesters in the streets of Bangkok in May 1992. His short stories in "Tales of Thailand" and "People of Esarn - The Damned of Thailand & The Kingdom in Conflicts" deal with the subjects of deforestation, child trade, slavery, prostitution, sex tourism, drug trade, land loss, forced relocation and pollution.
Personal
Pira Sudham (Pira Canning Sudham) has lived over twenty years in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and in the UK, writing short stories, poems, and his first novel, Monsoon Country. Now he lives in his home village in Isan, Northeastern Thailand.
Publications
- Tales of Thailand (2002) ShireAsia ISBN 9748962857 (originally published as Siamese Drama in 1983 in Bangkok). It was expanded and revised in 2002 under the current title. It has several editions including the Fifth Cycle Edition.
- Monsoon Country (1988). ShireAsia ISBN 974-89067-3-6. The novel has evolved into several editions including Rothershire Edition 1991,Breakwater (USA & Canada) edition 1992, Mahanaga Edition 2002, Shadowed Country edition 2004.
- People of Esarn (1987). ShireAsia ISBN 9748912345 The book was extensively revised and expanded into two parts, namely "People of Esarn – The Damned of Thailand and The Kingdom in Conflicts" published in Bangkok in 2007.
- The Force of Karma (2002). ShireAsia Publishers. ISBN 9749007913 A sequel to "Monsoon Country". The novel has several editions including Shadowed Country edition 2004.
- Shadowed Country (2004) Asiashire ISBN 974-91823-0-8 The 750-page hardback 'collector edition' is the combination of "Monsoon Country" and its sequel, "The Force of Karma". The author revised both works and extended the ending to the present.
- IT IS THE PEOPLE of Thailand and Other Countries" (2014) published as an ebook by Proglen Books ISBN 9786167817552 An anthology of Pira Sudham's outstanding stories, including a little monk's lament, a confession of a transvestite, a reflection of an Englishman's wife, tales of surviving in Bangkok by a little guttersnipe and a street food seller, a revelation of a prostitute, a recollection of a British prisoner of war, working on the Death Railway, a tale of a young Thai girl in search of love in Germany, a narrative on life of a child prostitute and an Italian's Asian adventure.
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
