Edith Mirante with Chin refugees from Burma in India.
Writer with the Soul of a Poet
Edith Mirante’s publisher describes her as “a dedicated writer with the soul of a poet and the passion of a revolutionary.” Edith is also a longtime resident of Portland and an on-call library clerk, presently working at the Sellwood Library.
She grew up in a small town in New Jersey where her parents were library volunteers and ardent readers. An intrepid traveler, Edith moved to Thailand after attending Sarah Lawrence College. In Thailand she painted and, in her words, “had no particular agenda.”
Travels to Burma
She traveled to Burma and heard about political repression, human rights violations, torture and rape. The situation in Burma was so different from the peaceful countryside of Thailand that she felt a responsibility to tell these stories. Mirante felt like Alice falling through the looking glass, hence the title of her first book, Burmese Looking Glass: A Human Rights Adventure and a Jungle Revolution. Her efforts to report on the persecution of ethnic minorities resulted in her being jailed twice in Thailand and finally deported.
Undeterred, Mirante returned to Burma. Down the Rat Hole: Adventures Underground on the Burma Frontier details human rights abuses and the destruction of the Burmese environment by unregulated logging, deforestation, gas and oil exploration, and gold mining. Mirante hiked for miles, dodged security forces and police, and dyed her blonde hair black to blend in more easily. She interviewed people in remote areas using a combination of English, Thai and Chinese. She closes the book with two words – “Free Burma.”
Burma is not yet free, but Mirante sees hopeful signs – the recent release from house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the continued attempts of the Burmese people to organize a democratic movement and the heartening examples of democratic uprisings in North Africa.
Study of an Indigenous People
For the last several years, Mirante has been at work on The Wind in the Bamboo, a study of an indigenous people living in the forests of the Philippines, Malaysia, and islands off the coast of India. They are thought to be the original inhabitants of Southeast Asia, descended from prehistoric Africans who made the first migrations. Like many aboriginal people, they are marginalized and discriminated against. She seeks to illuminate their culture and ask that the world respect it.
Using Library Research Services
Mirante used the library’s collection and the interlibrary loan program to do the research required for this work. She often writes in the Sterling Writing Room in Central Library which she characterizes as a “writer’s retreat” in downtown Portland.
In addition to her books, Edith Mirante speaks often in support of human rights and environmental issues. She has taught karate and studied kendo and is a member of the Society of Women Geographers.
