Suwannee Sukontha

Biography

Suwannee Sukontha was the penname of Suwannee Sukonthiang, an award-winning novelist born in Phitsanulok, Thailand. After graduating from Chalermkwansatree School, she went on to study at the Poh-Chang Academy of Arts before studying at Silpakorn University's Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts where she completed her bachelor's degree in 1951. Beginning her career as a government teacher at Bangkok's School of Arts and a Silpakorn University lecturer, she began writing bovels in 1965. That year, her first short story "A Letter to Puk" (จดหมายถึงปุก) under the penname Suwannee which she later changed to Suwannee Sukontha by writer and Siam Rath Weekly Review editor Pra-mun Aunha-thup. Her first novel "Sai Bo Yut Sane Hai" (สายบ่หยุดเสน่ห์หาย) was published to positive reception and she eventually resigned from her government position to write full-time. In 1971, she won the SEATO Literature Award and in 1972, she became the editor of Lalana Magazine where she worked until her death. With her ex-husband, national artist Tawee Nantakwang, Suwannee had four children before they divorced and she went on to marry Pat Srisawat Bandhumasuta. Her only son Namphu Wongmueang Nantakwang died of a narcotic drug overdose in 1974 at the age of eighteen. Blaming herself for her role in parenting him, she eventually adapted his story into the novel "Blue Moon" (พระจันทร์สีน้ำเงิน) as a lesson for other parents. The work popularised the term "problem child" (เด็กมีปัญหา) in Thai society. On February 3, 1984, Suwannee was murdered by two young men on her way to a market in Bangkok. The two technical students wanted to steal and sell her BMW so they could buy drugs, stabbing her dozens of times and leaving her body in the grass along the roadside.