Ko Ko Thett

Ko Ko Thett (; stylised as ko ko thett; born in 1972 in Rangoon) is a poet, poetry translator and editor based in Norwich, United Kingdom. Ko Ko Thett has published poetry collections, anthologies and translations in both Burmese and English. He was detained in 1996 for his involvement in the December 1996 student uprising. Following a residency at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in the United States in 2016, and a book tour, he returned to Myanmar in 2017. From 2012 to 2020, Ko Ko Thett was country editor for Myanmar at Poetry International, and from 2017 to 2022, poetry editor for Mekong Review. Ko Ko Thett has been published in Ambit, Asia Literary Review, Bengal Lights, Cyphers, Daedalus, Granta, Griffith Review, PN Review, Poetry London, Portside Review, The Margins, Tripwire, Usawa Literary Review, Washington Square Review, and World Literature Today, among others. His book, Bamboophobia, was shortlisted for the 2022 Walcott Poetry Prize.

Works

Bones Will Crow: 15 Contemporary Burmese Poets (2012), co-edited with James Byrne, The Burden of Being Burmese (2015), ဖူးဖူးသက်ရဲ့အင်တာနက် မိတ်ဆက်စာမျက်နှာ [Foo Foo Thett’s Page on an Internet Dating Site] (2016) လေယူလေသိမ်း [ACCENT] (2018) Bamboophobia (2022), Picking off New Shoots will Not Stop the Spring (2022), co-edited with Brian Haman,