Jailed writer to get PEN award

Yang Tongyan, a Chinese writer serving a 12-year prison term for posting anti-government articles on the Internet, will receive this year’s PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

The $10,000 award, announced Friday, is made annually to an imprisoned or persecuted writer who is in jeopardy because of health or other reasons. It is underwritten by Goldsmith, a historian, author and philanthropist, and presented by the American chapter of PEN, an international organization that monitors persecution of writers.

Yang, an essayist, poet and novelist who suffers from diabetes and arthritis, was arrested in December 2005 for “subverting state authority.” The following May, the Zhenjiang Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to 12 years in prison.