page_title: Irrawaddy Literary Festival
section_title: 2013
hierarchical_section_title: Irrawaddy Literary Festival / 2013
caption_attribution_description: English: Aung San Suu Kyi entering a room at the Festival
context_page_description: The Irrawaddy Literary Festival is a not-for-profit event run entirely by volunteers which celebrates Myanmar and international writers. It is planned to take place regularly every one or two years in Myanmar. The inaugural Festival was described by the British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, as having “achieved more for freedom of speech in one afternoon than most of us manage in a lifetime.” The inaugural Festival was held at the Inya Lake Hotel in Yangon, subsequent Festivals have been held at the Mandalay Hills Resort Hotel in Mandalay.
  The Festival was founded by Jane Heyn, wife of the former British Ambassador to Myanmar, in 2013, and is supported by Festival patron and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Aung San Suu Kyi.
  The fifth Irrawaddy Literary Festival took place 9-11 November 2019. This Festival marked the transition of the Festival from the international board of trustees to local Myanmar organisers, led by Sayar U Nay Oke, thus fulfilling the wishes of the Festival's founders and patron.
context_section_description: In 2013 the first Irrawaddy Literary Festival took place from the 1st to the 3rd of February in the Inya Lake Hotel in Yangon. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was the Festival’s key note speaker. Other participants included Wild Swans author Jung Chang, A Suitable Boy author Vikram Seth, and historian William Dalrymple. Burmese writers included Thant Myint-U, author of The River of Lost Footsteps, and Pascal Khoo Thwe, author of From the Land of Green Ghosts.
  Also in attendance was BBC journalist Fergal Keane, and photojournalist Thierry Falise.
  The Festival drew a crowd of approximately 10,000 attendees, and was considered a significant indication of the relaxation of Burmese censorship laws: a process which had begun in the preceding two years, following the release in November 2013 of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.
caption: Aung San Suu Kyi's arrival
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