Memoirville recommends… an interview with Mac McClelland on The Rumpus.

McClelland is author of the memoir For Us Surrender is Out of the Question, a story about her time spent abroad in Thailand. Her book moves outside of a personal journey story, where most memoirs remain, and into the history and current atrocities committed by the junta in Burma, specifically against the Karen, an ethnic minority living in Burma and fighting for autonomy since 1948.

In this interview with Jeremy Hatch, McClelland talks about how she learned about the Karen and the refugees along the Burma border, a bit of history about the conflict, and how she ultimately decided to write a memoir detailing her short stay in a distraught community.

Tags: Burma, junta, Mac McClelland, the Karen