Tin Moe

He died on January 22, 2007 in his home away from home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 73.

An active supporter of the pro-democracy movement, Tin Moe was imprisoned in 1991 for four years by Burma's military government for his activities. His work was banned, and after his release he left for the West and moved to the United States as an exile. He traveled through the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia attending literary events. In 2004, the Netherlands honoured him with the Prince Claus Award.

The political upheaval of 1988 in Burma was a turning point in Tin Moe's life. He responded to the criticism of the political content of his later poems such as Sobs and New Pages by referring to Thakin Kodaw Hmaing whose patriotic and satirical poetry spawned a powerful anti-colonial literary movement while Burma was under British rule. He had dedicated one of his earliest poems to his great hero, titled To Grandpa Thakin Kodaw Hmaing.

In 1956 Tin Moe collected his poems into a book titled Hpan Mee Ain (English: The Lantern). It won him the National Literary Award for Poetry in 1959. He continued to write poems and essays, and became editor of poetry at the Ludu Daily in Mandalay. He also worked for a time as the editor of Pei Hpu Hlwar magazine.

U Tin Moe (Burmese: .mw-parser-output .script-myanmar{line-height:120%;font-family:"Noto Sans Myanmar",Pyidaungsu,"Myanmar Text",Myanmar3,Myanmar2,Myanmar1,Padauk,mm3web,TharLon,"Masterpiece Uni Sans",Parabaik,Yunghkio,Thanlwin,"Win Uni Innwa","MyMyanmar Unicode","WinUni Innwa"}တင်မိုး; MLCTS: tangmui:; [tɪ̀ɰ̃ mó]) (1933-2007) was a Burmese poet.