Ko Lay Inwa Gonyi

Ko Lay (Burmese: ကိုလေး; 11 August 1936 – 22 November 2025), known by his pen name Ko Lay Inwa Gonyi (ကိုလေး (အင်းဝဂုဏ်ရည်)), was a Burmese poet and recipient of the Lifetime Award for the Myanmar National Literature Award. He began writing poetry in the sixth grade and went on to win the Myanmar National Literature Award for Poetry in 1965.

Early life

Ko Lay, the eldest of three siblings, was born on 11 August 1936 in Zegyo, Babaedan Ward, Inwa, to U Chon and Daw Magyi. During the Second World War, he attended Inwa Gonyi School, which had been established in Inwa by Daw Ohn and teachers from Mandalay National School, who had fled the war from Mandalay, together with his father U Chon. He passed the matriculation exam in 1954 and studied pure science at Mandalay University from 1954 to 1959, reaching Inter Part B.

Career as a poet

Ko Lay began writing poetry in the sixth grade. While at Mandalay University, he served as a librarian of the student dormitories, and was active in the university's pen club. His first published poem, Our Place the Golden Inwa, appeared in the August 1952 issue of the Mandalay Myanmar Lann Zin newspaper. He soon became well known among Mandalay University student poets and, together with Tin Moe, Maung Swan Yi, and Kyi Aung, was regarded as one of the four leading "Poet Commanders". His poetry collection Lann Thit Poems won the First Prize of the 1965 National Literature Award for Poetry. From 1967 through 2012, he was restricted from publishing under the country's military government due to his involvement in pro-democracy movements.