Ma Thida, a surgeon, writer and political commentator, spent 5½ years in prison in the 1990s for her activism. In 1995-96 she was the recipient of some awards including PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award and Reebok Human Rights award but she was not released until 1999. She was the fellow of the International Writing program at University of Iowa in 2005, of the International Writers project at Brown University in 2008-09 and of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2009-10. She became the first president of PEN Myanmar from 2013 till 2016 and she was elected as board member of PEN International in 2016 and 2019 and then elected as chair of the Writer in Prison Committee of PEN International in 2021. Ma was at the South East Asia Studies of The MacMillan Center of Yale University as research associate in 2021-22.