He was named a National Artist in Literature in 1992[1] and is best known for his satirical short stories published in his 1958 collection Fa Bo Kan (ฟ้าบ่กั้น, pronounced [fáː bɔ̀ː kân]) ['The Sky is No Barrier'].

[2] Born 25 December 1930 in Bua Yai District of Thailand's northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima Province,[3] Khamsing was raised on a farm in the countryside.

[3] Unable to afford room and board, Khamsing lived in a Buddhist temple in Bangkok while attending night classes and working part time as a journalist until he was overcome with illness and forced to drop out of school.

His personal farm in Pak Chong District, Nakhon Ratchasima, became a refuge in times of crisis or government suppression of intellectuals, especially in the late-1950s and on his return from exile in the early-1980s.

Due to the political power-struggle between CIA-backed Phao Sriyanond and Pentagon-supported Sarit Thanarat, Thai writers and intellectuals were free to express their ideas.

[12] Anderson argues that Khamsing's Fa Bo Kan, a collection of many of his stories originally published in Piyamit, best symbolizes this period of intellectual freedom.

Sarit's regime reinstated strict censorship, ending the period of free thought through imprisonment, exile, and execution of Thai intellectuals, writers, and progressives.

[13] This crackdown on progressives and the independent press forced Khamsing to abandon writing for a number of years, during which time he returned to Nakhon Ratchasima to his farm.

On his way back to Thailand he visited France, Germany, Israel, and the Ivory Coast, apparently as an official guest studying literary and agricultural activities.

[3] Suchat, along with Sulak Sivaraksa rediscovered the work of Khamsing after a visit to his farm, which led to the republication of Fa Bo Kan and his writing was disseminated in magazines of university literary clubs.

After the military and police crackdown on student demonstrations at Thammasat University on 14 October 1973, Khamsing became politically active and was elected vice-chairman of the Socialist Party of Thailand.

[20] By giving voice to the common peasant, often in the vernacular in the village setting, Khamsing's writings, most notably Fa Bo Kan, worked to democratize Thai literature.

[15] His work has been translated into nine languages, including English, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Japanese, Singhalese, Malay, German, and French.