Zurinah Hassan is Malaysia literary laureate (SASTERAWAN NEGARA), and the first female writer to be awarded the title. She had also received Southeast Asia Write Award in 2004 and the Sunthorn Phu Poetry Prize in 2013 (an award of recognition for outstanding poets in the ASEAN country). She reads syair at cultural events and has performed this traditional poetry in India, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei.
Zurinah had
published collection of poems, short
stories, literary studies, a novel, and a memoir. Although better known as a
poet but Zurinah also won the Premier
Literary Award, Hadiah Sastera Utusan (Utusan Literature Prize), National
Library Book Prize for short stories and memoirs. Her work has been translated
into several languages. Her book Facing The
Harbor has been published in English,
Spanish, Russian and French translation.
Zurinah
Hassan was born on June 13, 1949 in Alor Setar, Kedah, received her early
education in a Malay school in Tikam
Batu, Sungai Petani Convent School and Sultanah Asma School , Alor Setar before
studying at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang (Penang) . She had served
as a Senior Information Officer in Ministry of Information Malaysia, a lecturer
at the University of Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia in addition to Guest
Writer at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Zurinah obtained a Bachelor of Arts
degree from USM, Master of Arts degree from UPM and a Ph.D from the University
of Malaya.
