"The Irrawaddy Literary Festival recently wrapped up its fifth year with over 100 panel discussions and workshops featuring more than 100 Myanmese writers together with several international authors. Since 2010, when pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from years of house arrest, Myanmar has undergone a number of political reforms following 50 years of military rule. With this backdrop of the country gradually opening up, the three-day biannual literary festival gives participants unfettered space to freely discuss sensitive political and social issues between locals and foreigners. The event was held from November 9 to 11 in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city and considered the centre of the country’s culture. Some 5,000 people attended, with this year’s theme “Youth and Literature” a bid to involve schools and universities as much as possible. Topics of discussion ranged from political cartoons to writing poetry, the challenges of translation, and journalism in the age of fake news. Engaging in these panels was not a problem for foreign visitors as a group of 30 volunteers provided simultaneous translation for the festival..."