Sri Daoruang (“splendid marigold”) is the pen name of Wanna Sawasdsri (sometimes spelled as Sawatsri), who was born in 1943 in the town of Phitsanulok, about 200 miles north of Bangkok. Her family was poor, and she recalls running alongside her mother at the railroad station, selling sweets to passengers.
There was no money for education beyond the compulsory four years, but like her parents, Wanna loved to read, although books were hard to come by. As a young woman, she worked in factories in Bangkok, and occasionally as a household maid. She married Suchart Sawasdsri, a university student who was lecturing to factory workers during the early 1970s, a time of great political and social change. As Sri Daoruang, she began to write short stories based upon her own background and experiences, frankly referring to herself in one story as “an up-country factory worker, that’s what!” English translations of her tragi-comic, unique stories about married life in modern Thailand appear in English translations by Susan F. Kepner in her book Married to the Demon King: Sri Daoruang and Her Demon Folk (Silkworm Books, 2004).
