Literary legends call for the release of a Nobel-winner’s widow

Twenty-eight artists and writers are demanding the release of Liu Xia, the widow of Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo.

Literary figures including JM Coetzee – himself a Nobel laureate – Paul Auster, Rita Dove and Alice Sebold have released videos of themselves reading Liu Xia’s poetry.

The videos were part of a call organized by Amnesty international and PEN America to free Liu Xia, whose mental health has declined during her years in captivity.         

Chinese officials have maintained that Liu is free, but she has been under house arrest since 2010 – the year her husband was awarded the Nobel prize.

Liu Xiaobo was jailed in 2009 for co-writing the pro-democracy Charter 08 manifesto. He died in July 2017, still in custody.