I met Veeraporn Nitiprapha for the first time at the George Town Literary Festival in 2023, where I moderated a panel, on literature and translation, that she spoke on. I was blown away by her humorous yet sharp musing on Thai politics and histories and how she has woven them into the backdrop of her novels. We bantered over food and coffee during the festival, and stayed in touch after that, occasionally sharing cat photos and tossing ideas back and forth.
A born-and-bred Bangkokian, Veerapon is a two-time winner of the prestigious South East Asian Writers Award (commonly known as the S.E.A. Write Award)—the first woman to achieve this feat. Her second novel, Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat, which was translated into English by Kong Rithdee and published in 2022, unravels a family saga as each member of the Tong family finds themselves at odds with, or swept away by, the currents of Thailand’s history.
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