Biography

Inrasara was born in 1957 at Ninh Thuan province, Chaklen village, the oldest one of Cham. He started writing poems and collecting traditional literature since high school, and published his first research ‘Cham Literature Outline’ (Sorbonne CHCPI Award), as well as his first poetry collection “The tower of sunlight” (1996, Vietnam Poets Union Award) in his 40s. He also works with several intellects to publish ‘Tagalau’, a unique publication comprising of writings, collections and researches about Cham to preserve the essence of traditional culture. After 12 years in circulation, ‘Tagalau’ has brought many new writers to the national literature forum. While Inrasara works primarily with poetry, in recent years he has taken up essay and literature critique. To him, the purpose of such a “Record Critique” endeavour is to demolish the wall between literature’s ‘external’ genres with its core, fighting for the vocation of all genres for their righteous positions in literature.