Chart Korpjitti
Chart Korpjitti was born in 1954 in Samut Prakhan near Bangkok, the
second of nine children in a small-time trading family. Afters years
as a temple boy in the capital, he studied fine art and printing,
supporting himself by doing odd jobs.
He was not quite 20 when he decided that creative writing was his life,
and five years later he turned down a promising career in business
to gamble on a literary career.
In his life and work, Chart appears to be of that rare breed of Thai who always know what they want and are prepared to make sacrifices for it. After publishing a novella and a collection of short stories, he gained widespread recognition as a leading experimental writer in 1981 with his novel The Judgement, which won national and regional awards, and was made into a movie and a television series.
Since then, Chart has continued to write novels of high quality, including An Ordinary Story (1983), Carrion Floating By (1987), Mad Dogs & Co. (1988), and Time (1993), along with several collections of short stories. With varying degrees of success he has strived to renew his style with each novel. In addition to literary awards (the SEA Write award in 1981), he may be the only Thai novelist (aside from pen-pushers churning out popular potboilers) able to support himself entirely through his craft.
A scathing observer of the foibles of society, Chart deftly handles all the shade of irony. His subject matter is unmistakably Thai, rural or lower urban middle class, yet his treatment, themes, and message are universal. His vision of the world is consistently somber, yet redeemed by the implicit humanistic values of his stories, and his celebration of friendship of his characters.
Marcel Barang
Marcel Barang is the most prolific and enthusiastic translator
of Thai literature working today. French by birth, and a
long-time resident of Bangkok, Marcel trained as a language and arts
teacher. He toiled for many years as a journalist before turning
to fulltime literary translation (from Thai to both English and French) in 1993.
Barang's most ambitious project is the Thai Modern Classics series - a sensitively translated collection of the best examples of 20th century Thai literature. The series, which ranges from Arkartdamkeung Rapheephat's 1929 Circus of Life to Daenaran Saengthong's White Shadow (1994), is still underway - sadly, publication was stalled in mid-stream by the economic crisis of 1997.
His anthology The 20 Best Novels of Thailand (TMC Bangkok 1994, 492 pp, ISBN 974-89038-9-3) draws a broad picture of the Thai literary scene. It includes an excellent survey of Thai literary criticism, along with extended selections from all twenty works in the series. The notes on the author, above, were taken from this book.
For more information on Marcel Barang, including additional selections from his translated works, visit the Thai Fiction in Translation website, or contact him directly at marcelbarang@bkk.a-net.net.th