Visitors browse books Friday (February 1st) at Burma's inaugural Irrawaddy International Literary Festival in Rangoon. The festival, which hosts luminaries from the book world, is lauded as a breakthrough for creativity after years of oppressive state censorship. [Soe Than Win/AFP]

RANGOON, Burma – Prominent writers, both local and international, gathered in Rangoon on Friday (February 1st) to participate in Burma's first Irrawaddy Literary Festival, AFP reported.

The festival signalled another step towards media freedom and an end to decades of censorship, poet Saw Wai said. "There was no freedom at all before," he explained, noting he had been jailed under the former junta for writing a satirical poem about the regime.

Two dozen international authors and about 120 local writers and poets are participating in the three-day festival at a Rangoon hotel.