Mac McClelland reports back from Burma and has new book out from Soft Skull Press

Mac McClelland's forthcoming title from Soft Skull Press is For Us Surrender is out of the Question is about the time she spent in Thailand in 2006.  Adam Hochschild says of the title, "This is a book alternately poignant and raucous, angry and heartbreaking; a reader could not ask for a more vivid introduction to the long-overlooked plight of Burma's Karen people. Mac McClelland's reporting is very much from-the-ground-up, far livelier than we will ever get from the average foreign correspondent." To commemorate the release of this important publication, Soft Skull press is hosting a book signing and civilized cocktails at Bender's at 806 South Van Ness on March 5th. Start time: 7:30 . When Mac got in touch with me about her book and the Soft Skull event I immediately knew I wanted to hear more.  

S.A. Tell me about the book.                                                                                         

M.M. In 2006 I went to Thailand to volunteer and ended up living with a bunch of young, hot, hard-drinking refugees from Burma who snuck back and forth over [the border] videotaping and taking pictures of atrocities committed by the Burmese army: Burning down villages, torture, murder, rape. The book is largely about the time I spent with them, and what I learned about their government’s secret genocide.

S.A. Why should Americans care about what is happening in Burma?                          

M.M. Everyone has an obligation to be vigilant against genocide, no matter where it’s happening. It’s not even really Americans’ fault; they don’t know about it [because] nobody’s reporting it. It’s inexcusable, especially when we claimed “never again” and to have learned our lesson after Rwanda.  

S.A. Did you cross the border?                                                                                                     

M. M. On that trip, I did go into Burma once, but legally, through an official checkpoint, which I write about in the book. It wasn’t dangerous or anything, just annoying, because you have to pay the jerky Burmese soldiers a visa fee to get into their country. On a subsequent trip I crossed the border with refugees, the way refugees do – through the forest in middle-of-nowhere Thailand, away from checkpoints, then in a longtail boat across the river. You can get across as easy as pie, or you can maybe be killed by soldiers[who are] on either side, as two kids who were last week. It just depends if you get caught.

S.A. Were you scared?                                                                                            

M.M. No, I definitely wasn’t scared when I crossed the border with the refugees. They are so used to trauma that they often exude this impossibly serene vibe of acceptance. They just hoped for the best and got on with it, so I just hoped for the best and got on with it. Even someone as spastic as I am can’t really be anxious surrounded by so much calm.      

S.A. How did the opportunity to publish with Soft Skull come about?                                   

M.M. My agent and I had been shopping the proposal for a while, and had been talking to some editors who were really interested in the story but whose own bosses ultimately wouldn’t let them acquire the book, either because nobody cares about Burma, or because they didn’t like how voicey my prose was or the way I wanted to integrate a ton of research into these personal narratives. A friend of mine was telling a friend of his about it at a barbeque, actually, and that friend happened to be an editor at Soft Skull. They asked for the proposal, and then said the magic words: That I could do the book however I wanted.

S.A. What's next for you? Any plans to got back to Burma?                                            

M.M. After my editors at Mother Jones magazine, where I’ve worked for the last few years, read the book, they sort of invented this position for me as their roving human rights correspondent. We’ll just have to wait and see where that takes me next. So I don’t have any plans to go back to the Burmese border in the near future, but I know I will someday. I swear I don’t usually say things this dorky and cliché, but a big piece of my heart is there.

Mac McClelland is a writer and editor at Mother Jones. Her work has also appeared in The Nation, GQ South Africa, Orion, and Hustler, among other publications. For us Surrender is out of the Question is out now from Soft Skull Press. The book signing to event is free and open to the public.