Malaysia’s 13th National Laureate
Zurinah Hassan
Poet, storyteller and scholar whose writing carries the memory of place, the inner lives of women and the enduring intelligence of Malay literary tradition.
First woman to receive Malaysia’s National Laureate honour
13th
National Laureate
50+
Years of writing
9
Languages reached
38
Works and editions indexed
Essential reading
Three doors into the work
From the first collection to international translation and recent reinvention.
1974
Sesayup Jalan
The first individual collection—a record of an emerging voice, intimate observation and movement.
2018
A Journey Through Prose and Poetry
The English-language path through a woman writer’s creative formation and public life.
2024
Perempuan Pelabuhan
A new-generation selection reconnecting enduring poems with today’s readers.
A guiding idea
“Literature is culture: a living root that keeps a people standing while the world changes.”
Distilled from Zurinah Hassan’s literary reflections
Research pathways
Built for serious discovery
Books, scholarship, chronology, translations and image provenance are connected for researchers and readers.