Čhiranan Pitpreecha (born 1955) is a Thai poet and feminist. For a time, she had the married name Čhiranan Prasertkul. Her surname also appears as Phitprīchā. She is a recipient of the

S.E.A. Write Award The S.E.A. Write Award, or Southeast Asian Writers Award, is an award that is presented annually since 1979 to poets and writers of Southeast Asia. The awards are given to the writers from each of the countries comprised in the Association of S ...

Biography

The daughter of a bookstore owner, she was born in

Trang Province Trang (, ; ), also called ''Mueang Thap Thiang'', is one of the southern Provinces of Thailand, provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand, on the west side of the Malay Peninsula facing the Strait of Malacca. Neighboring provinces are (from north clo ...

. Pitpreecha was a prominent student activist in the

1973 Thai popular uprising The popular uprising of 14 October 1973 (, , ; also , , ) was a watershed event in Thailand's History of Thailand, history. The uprising resulted in the end of the ruling military dictatorship of anti-communist Thanom Kittikachorn and altered the ...

; following the

Thammasat University massacre The 6 October 1976 massacre, also known as the 6 October event ( ) in Thailand, was a violent crackdown by Thai police and lynching by right-wing paramilitaries and bystanders against leftist protesters who had occupied Bangkok's Thammasat Un ...

in October 1976, she fled to the jungle and joined the

Communist Party of Thailand The Communist Party of Thailand ( Abrv: CPT; , ) was a communist party in Thailand active from 1942 until the 1990s. The CPT was founded officially on 1 December 1942, although communist activism in the country began as early as 1927. In the 1 ...

. Pitpreecha returned to

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

in 1981. With her husband,

Seksan Prasertkul Seksan Prasertkul (, born 1949) is a Thai author who was awarded the title National Artist of Thailand in 2009. Seksan became a student leader at Thammasat University and was active in the October 1973 protests against the military government of ...

, she went to the United States, where she earned a BA and MA in history from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. After her return to Thailand, she separated from her husband. Pitpreecha's poem "Cracked Pebble" received an award for the best poem of 1981 from

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide professional association, association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association ...

Thailand. She has written a variety of work, including poetry, history, travel articles, and social commentary, for various publications in Thailand. Her first collection of poems, ''Bai Mai Ti Hai Pai'' (The Missing Leaf) received the

in 1989. In 1992, her poem "First Rain" was named best poem of the year by PEN International Thailand. In 2011, she was named one of the 65 most influential women in Thailand. Her work has been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, and Malay.

References

Chiranan Pitpreecha 1955 births Living people Chiranan Pitpreecha Cornell University alumni Chiranan Pitpreecha 21st-century poets Chiranan Pitpreecha Chiranan Pitpreecha Chiranan Pitpreecha Marxist feminists {{Thailand-writer-stub