Purpose
Exile does not silence literature, it relocates it — under conditions the writer did not choose. Displacement here is not by accident but production: military rule, extraction, the devaluation of certain languages within Myanmar itself. This prize insists the writers it produces are read as writers first, not as testimony for someone else’s report.
What a Burmese writer in exile lacks is not talent but infrastructure: translation, editorial relationships, a readership beyond the emergency that produced the work. That scarcity is not natural; it follows who owns publishing infrastructure and whose displacement gets treated as a permanent exception. This prize is one piece of the infrastructure exiled writers are owed, and a beginning, not a substitute for the rest.
Sam Yan Press has long stood within the loose solidarity linking Thailand, Myanmar, Hong Kong, and Taiwan known as the Milk Tea Alliance. This prize extends that same logic into literature: a Thai press making room for Burmese writers not as charity, but as continuation of a fight already held in common.
Exile is not evenly distributed — resources track class, ethnicity, and gender as much as displacement itself. Submissions need not address exile or politics directly. But we are glad to reach writers whose languages or circumstances have made recognition harder to come by, since that unevenness is the gap this prize exists to close.
Eligibility
- Open to writers from Myanmar, including those in exile or diaspora communities, regardless of legal or residency status.
- Submissions are welcome in Burmese, English, and the languages of Myanmar’s nationalities; Karen, Kachin, Chin, Mon, Shan, Karenni, Rakhine, Rohingya, and others not listed here. If your language isn’t named, submit anyway; we will find a way to read it.
- Work must be original and previously unpublished, in any language.
- Writers of all ages are welcome, including first-time writers.
Categories
Submit in one of the following forms. All submissions are judged together for a single overall prize. No form is weighted above another.
- Short Story: up to 5,000 words
- Literary Essay: up to 5,000 words
- Poetry: up to 5 poems
Prize
One writer is selected as the winner of the Sam Yan Writing in Exile Prize, receiving:
- Publication by Sam Yan Press
- English translation (for Burmese-language and ethnic-language winners)
- A public reading in Thailand and worldwide
- Certificate and commemorative award
- Cash prize: 10,000 THB
On Safety and Anonymity
We understand that many writers submitting to this prize are doing so under real risk, from a state that treats minority-language and dissident writing not as a genre but as evidence to be prosecuted. You may submit under a pseudonym. Sam Yan Press will hold your legal identity in strict confidence and will not disclose it without your written consent, including in the event you win. If public appearance in Bangkok poses a risk to you, we will arrange for a translator, editor, or fellow writer to read on your behalf, or make other accommodations — tell us what you need in your submission.
Judging Criteria
- Literary quality
- Originality
- Strength of voice
- Emotional and intellectual depth
- Craft and language
A note on judging across forms
Same five criteria for story, essay, and poetry. None weighted above another, none read by a standard belonging to a different form. Depth in forty lines of poetry isn’t depth in five thousand words of prose, but both answer the same question.
Judges
The panel is composed of Sam Yan Press editors together with invited scholars in literature and humanities.
Submission Guidelines
- Open Call: Now – October 31, 2026
- Submit via Google Form https://forms.gle/nqeJqLzJFcRNojQo7
- Format: submit both .docx file and the .pdf file. Writers are free to write in any format.
- Language: submit in your original language; a rough English gloss is welcome but not required.
- Multiple submissions: Writers are able to submit to more than one category, but the prize will be only for one category.
- Rights: Sam Yan Press requests first publication rights only; writers retain all other rights to their work.