Former Hong Kong academic and author on shortlist for prestigious Man Booker Prize
Madeleine Thien, who claims City University’s decision to close its creative writing course was politically motivated, is one of six finalists for Man Booker Prize
A Canadian author who condemned City University of Hong Kong’s abrupt closure of a creative writing programme last year as an attempt to limit free expression has been shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world.
Madeleine Thien, who had taught the university’s master of fine arts in creative writing programme from 2010, is one of six finalists. Her book, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, is about China’s revolutionary history, including the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.
Winners of the Booker prize, established in Britain in 1969, receive £50,000 (HK$510,000), while each shortlisted author gets £2,500.
Thien was among 25 internationally renowned authors who signed a petition letter to City University’s management last year protesting at the decision to close the course.
In a blog post for the Guardian newspaper in Britain in May last year, Thien linked the decision to a number of students on the programme publishing essays in support of the pro-democracy mass civil-disobedience Occupy Central movement in 2014.