Balestier Press

24/12/2025

As the year draws to a close, we’ve been looking back at the collections we’ve had the privilege of publishing over the last twelve months. It’s been a particular honour to see three of our titles by female poets gain such wonderful—and well-deserved—recognition.

We were delighted to see these three collections featured in the Paper Republic 2025 Roll Call, and we remain immensely grateful to the authors and translators who entrusted us with their work:

Ling Yü’s 'Daughters' (translated by Nicholas Y. H. Wong). It was a joy to see Ling Yü recognised as the winner of the 2025 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature.

Yau Ching’s 'for now I am sitting here growing transparent' (translated by Chenxin Jiang). We are quite moved to see this collection longlisted for the 2026 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation.

Yen Ai Lin’s 'Bone Skin Flesh' (translated by Jennifer Marie Nunes). A powerful, singular work that has been a significant part of our year. (Book events at SOAS London and Oxford in Feb 2026).

In a year of many fine publications, we feel very fortunate to have played a small part in bringing these voices to English-speaking readers.

Another year, another roll call! As has long been tradition at Paper Republic, we're rounding out the year with a list of all the Chinese literature that came out in English translation over the last twelve months. This year's list also includes shorter pieces published online and in magazines and a...

03/11/2025

Podcast: Ma Thida on Myanmar’s Spring Revolution

Ma Thida — writer, surgeon, and activist — speaks with Himal Southasian about Myanmar’s ongoing fight for democracy after the 2021 coup.

Based on her new book A-Maze: Myanmar’s Struggle for Democracy, 2011-2023 (Balestier Press), she reflects on resistance, resilience, and reimagining a federal future.

Listen here 👉 himalmag.com/podcast/ma-thida-myanmar-junta-spring-revolution-democracy

And available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/V_caOwl4Ctc

“Revolutions don’t end — they evolve.”

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwe

01/11/2025

25/10/2025

"After one conversation, the prison authority confessed, 'Ma, you are free. We... we are not.' "

"I was in prison; I was the prisoner. But the prison officer told me, 'You are free, we are not.' "

"I always believe language is identity, and language also has the power to challenge power. That's why I always used my own authority of language to challenge the jail authority, to tell them my own stories and feelings, and to ignite them to think about what true freedom is."

--- Ma Thida

Ma Thida "A-Maze: Myanmar’s Struggle for Democracy, 2011-2023" (Balestier Press 2024)

==================

At , authors read from their works and reflect on freedom of expression — Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Featuring:
📖 Ma Thida
📖 Jegana Dschabbarowa
📖 Nedim Türfent
📖 Patricia Evangelista

🎙 Moderated by Shila Behjat
🎙 Introduction by Melissa Fleming, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications

🗓 Friday, 17 October | 10:00–10:50
📍 Centre Stage, Hall 4.1

Diverse voices in storytelling are essential to reflect the breadth of human experience and open new worlds for readers to explore different ideas and concep...

20/10/2025

🌿 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2025
🗓️ 29 October – 2 November 2025
📍 Ubud, Bali

Ma Thida has published over 25 books in Myanmar and three in English: The Roadmap, Prisoner of Conscience: My Steps through Insein, and "A-Maze: Myanmar’s Struggle for Democracy 2011–2023" (Balestier Press 2024).

She served as the first elected president of PEN Myanmar (2013–2016), a PEN International board member (2016, 2019), and currently chairs the Writers in Prison Committee. She is now a Writer-in-Exile fellow with PEN Germany — continuing to inspire voices of freedom and resilience through her work.

👉 Learn more: https://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/speakers/ma-thida

🌺 Festival Penulis & Pembaca Ubud 2025
🗓️ 29 Oktober – 2 November 2025
📍 Ubud, Bali

Kami dengan bangga menyambut Ma Thida, seorang dokter, penulis, dan aktivis hak asasi manusia asal Myanmar.

Penerima berbagai penghargaan internasional seperti Disturbing the Peace Award dari Vaclav Havel dan Courageous Writer at Risk Award (2016), Ma Thida telah menerbitkan lebih dari 25 buku dalam bahasa Myanmar serta tiga buku dalam bahasa Inggris: The Roadmap, Prisoner of Conscience: My Steps through Insein, dan A-Maze: Myanmar’s Struggle for Democracy 2011–2023 (Balestier Press 2024).

Ia merupakan presiden pertama yang terpilih secara demokratis untuk memimpin PEN Myanmar (2013–2016), anggota dewan PEN International (2016, 2019), dan kini menjabat sebagai ketua Writers in Prison Committee. Saat ini, ia menjadi fellow program Writer-in-Exile bersama PEN Jerman, melanjutkan perjuangannya untuk kebebasan berekspresi dan kemanusiaan.

👉 Selengkapnya: https://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/speakers/ma-thida

Ma Thida

19/10/2025

18/10/2025

A key insight from writer Ma Thida:

The Myanmar Spring Revolution is different because it never stopped.

​She notes that since 2021, there has been a fight "every single day." When peaceful protests were crushed, the resistance didn't die—it transformed into a persistent, multi-front struggle that continues to this day.

Ma Thida, "A-Maze : Myanmar’s Struggle for Democracy, 2011-2023" (Balestier Press 2024)

​

18/10/2025

Amazing Maze. Ma Thida Frankfurt Book Fair event now Hall 3.1 K71

18/10/2025

A powerful event today at the Frankfurt Book Fair:

Writers Dr. Ma Thida and Sabal Phyu Nu, both Writers-in-Exile fellows of PEN Germany, spoke with Astrid Vehstedt, PEN Vice President and Writers-in-Exile representative, about the situation in Myanmar — about courage, resistance, and the power of literature in the face of censorship and violence.

Their words showed what it means to keep one’s voice alive in exile and to stand up for freedom of expression and truth.

Ma Thida, "A-Maze : Myanmar’s Struggle for Democracy, 2011-2023" (Balestier Press 2024)
https://balestier.com/books/literature/a-maze/

„Myanmar – Das vergessene Land“

Eine eindrucksvolle Veranstaltung am Stand des Hessischen Literaturrats heute Mittag auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse: Die Schriftstellerinnen Dr. Ma Thida und Sabal Phyu Nu, beide Writers-in-Exile-Stipendiatinnen des PEN Deutschland, sprachen unter der Moderation von Astrid Vehstedt, PEN-Vizepräsidentin und Writers-in-Exile-Beauftragte, über die Situation in Myanmar, über Mut, Widerstand und die Kraft der Literatur im Angesicht von Zensur und Gewalt. Ihre Texte zeigten insbesondere, was es heißt, im Exil die Stimme zu bewahren sowie für die Freiheit des Wortes und die Wahrheit einzutreten.

07/10/2025

《骨皮肉》中英雙語版發表會：當文學跨越語言邊界
Bilingual Edition Launch: When Literature Crosses the Boundaries of Language
​
日期：2025/10/18（六）
時間：19:00-20:00
地點：底加書店（台北市中正區羅斯福路四段24巷13號B1）
講者：顔艾琳（作者）
與談：羅秀芝（獨立策展人╱紀錄片導演）
​
《骨皮肉》是臺灣詩人顏艾琳的代表作，以其對女性特質的坦率探索和一系列情慾詩，在文壇掀起廣泛討論，她以詩的語言書寫身體與存在的邊界，記錄女性在現實與意識之間的掙扎與感知。
​
《骨皮肉》中英雙語版則以譯者簡莉芳的全新譯本，再現詩集的節奏與肌理，讓語言在轉換中生成新的意義與層次。
​
發表會邀請策展人，也是紀錄片導演羅秀芝與作者對談，從「語言的再生」與「身體的敘事」兩個面向，探討詩如何在翻譯與轉譯之間繼續呼吸。
​
這是一場關於文字、聲音與理解的對話——
當語言跨越邊界，文學將如何被重新閱讀與聽見。
​
p.s. 現場可簽書

#骨皮肉 #中英雙語版 #顔艾琳 #底加書店 #島座放送

06/10/2025

[𝐍𝐄𝐖 Cha: An Asian Literary Journal 𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄—𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖] In this interview, poet and critic Tiffany Troy speaks with translator Chenxin Jiang about her recent rendering of 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 (Zephyr Press, 2025) by Hong Kong poet, filmmaker, and scholar Yau Ching.

Chenxin Jiang:

/ I describe Yau Ching’s language as Cantonese-inflected standard Chinese because I think that description is more accurate than calling it Cantonese per se: her writing is generally perfectly intelligible to non-Cantonese-speaking readers of standard Chinese, but here and there she slips in a Cantonese word or form of grammatical usage. The indignation that Yau Ching describes certainly has a linguistic edge to it: it is anchored in part in the disregard for local identity that animates the line “if your name is not an English name / the island will give you one.” (Yau Ching does not go by what Hong Kong people would recognise as an “English” or Western name; as a person who has a Chinese pinyin name, I can attest that when I was growing up in Hong Kong I was asked once a week whether I had an English name.)

It is worth noting that the poem does not explicitly identify its titular island as Hong Kong—and Yau Ching herself would observe that Taiwan is also a plausible referent. In the English, I mostly render the indignant quotational shouts (“go north! north! north!” “shame! shame! shame!”) using repetition that mirrors the Chinese, with the exception of the cluster foreign/cosmopolitan/the world (in the line “it’s a multinational corporation shouting about being foreign! / cosmopolitan! the world!”) for 國際. To my ear, this was helpful in breaking up the repetition in the stanza and avoiding the five-syllable mouthful “international.” But I think it also captures some of the complexity and resentment that comes with the extreme disparity in wealth mentioned elsewhere in the stanza. /

⧉ 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: https://chajournal.blog/2025/10/05/chenxin-jiang/
。。。。。