Ma Thida

Ma Thida is a medical doctor, writer, human rights activist. She believes in freedom of expression. In 1993, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for "endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organizations, and distributing unlawful literature." She was released in 1999 and was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award, the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, Freedom of Speech Award and Disturbing the Peace; Courageous Writer at Risk Award. She was an International Writers Project Fellow at Brown University and a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, the inaugural elected president of PEN Myanmar from 2013 till 2016. She served as a board member of PEN International 2016-21, then now is the chair of Writer in Prison Committee since 2021. She was a research associate at Yale University for 2021-2022. She moved to Germany as a fellow of Martin Roth Initiative for 2022-2023, then currently is a fellow at Writer in Exile program of PEN Germany.