About the Author

Denis D. Gray, author of the introductory essay on Myanmar past and present, was born in the Czech Republic and resided in Germany, South Africa and France until his university education at Yale and George Washington. He served in Japan and South Vietnam as a U.S. Army officer before joining the Associated Press in Albany, New York, in 1972. A year later he was assigned to cover the war in Indochina. Since 1975 he has reported major stories for the AP in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe, ranging from coups in Thailand to Olympic Games and the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, the Balkans and elsewhere. He has also contributed to numerous magazines including Smithsonian, National Geographic, GEO Germany, Travel and Leisure and Reader's Digest. He first went to Myanmar in the mid-1970s and has covered the country since, although he was banned from entering the country for many years. He was removed from the blacklist, along with many colleagues, not long after President Thein Sein took office.