Jailed Vietnamese dissident Pham Doan Trang to be honored by PEN America

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Imprisoned Vietnamese author-blogger-journalist Pham Doan Trang will be this year’s recipient of PEN America’s Barbey Freedom to Write Award, given by the free expression organization to a “jailed writer of conscience.” Trang, 45, has written several books, among them “Non-Violent Resistance” and “Politics for the Common People.” She has been a prominent critic of the Vietnamese government and a leading advocate for democratic reform who was beaten by police in 2015 and now walks with a limp. She was arrested on charges of “propaganda against the state” in 2020 and sentenced to nine years in prison.