First ever PEN/Pinter Prize goes to ‘unmistakable’ UK poet and ‘wise fool’ of Burma
The first PEN/Pinter Prize will be awarded tonight, 14th October to the poet and playwright Tony Harrison. In his winner speech, held at the British Library, home of the Pinter Archive, Harrison will announce that the winner of the international category for imprisoned writers around the world has been awarded to Zargana, a hugely popular Burmese poet, comedian, film actor and director, as well as a fierce critic of the military government.
The prize has been established by the writers’ charity English PEN in memory of the Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter. It will be shared annually between a writer who exemplifies Pinter’s commitment to ‘the reality of our times’, and an imprisoned writer of courage.
In November 2008 Zargana was sentenced to 59 years imprisonment, convicted of ‘public order offences’ and for leading a private relief effort to deliver aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis. Following appeals his term was reduced by ‘up to 24 years’. He has therefore to serve the remaining 35 years in prison.
Zargana has in the past insisted that even if he is silenced, under-the-table humour will persist in Burma’s taxicabs, teashops and dining rooms: “Burmese people love to laugh. But if I can’t speak, jokes will still spread. The people will make them up themselves.”
Zargana was awarded the Lillian Hellman and Dashiel Hammett Award, given by the Fund for Free Expression, a committee organized by New York based Human Rights Watch. In October 2008, Zargana was awarded One Humanity Award by PEN Canada of which he is an honorary member.
More than 100 activists have been sentenced over the past two weeks in a judicial crackdown across the spectrum of Burma's pro-democracy movement. Some people have been sentenced to terms as long as 65 years.
The judges for the inaugural PEN/Pinter Prize were Antonia Fraser, Nicholas Hytner, Mark Lawson, Tom Stoppard, and Lisa Appignanesi, President of English PEN.
The first PEN/Pinter Prize will be awarded tonight, 14th October to the poet and playwright Tony Harrison. In his winner speech, held at the British Library, home of the Pinter Archive, Harrison will announce that the winner of the international category for imprisoned writers around the world has been awarded to Zargana, a hugely popular Burmese poet, comedian, film actor and director, as well as a fierce critic of the military government.
The prize has been established by the writers’ charity English PEN in memory of the Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter. It will be shared annually between a writer who exemplifies Pinter’s commitment to ‘the reality of our times’, and an imprisoned writer of courage.
In November 2008 Zargana was sentenced to 59 years imprisonment, convicted of ‘public order offences’ and for leading a private relief effort to deliver aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis. Following appeals his term was reduced by ‘up to 24 years’. He has therefore to serve the remaining 35 years in prison.
Zargana has in the past insisted that even if he is silenced, under-the-table humour will persist in Burma’s taxicabs, teashops and dining rooms: “Burmese people love to laugh. But if I can’t speak, jokes will still spread. The people will make them up themselves.”
Zargana was awarded the Lillian Hellman and Dashiel Hammett Award, given by the Fund for Free Expression, a committee organized by New York based Human Rights Watch. In October 2008, Zargana was awarded One Humanity Award by PEN Canada of which he is an honorary member.
More than 100 activists have been sentenced over the past two weeks in a judicial crackdown across the spectrum of Burma's pro-democracy movement. Some people have been sentenced to terms as long as 65 years.
The judges for the inaugural PEN/Pinter Prize were Antonia Fraser, Nicholas Hytner, Mark Lawson, Tom Stoppard, and Lisa Appignanesi, President of English PEN.
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