Duong Thu Huong was born in 1947 in the area of Thai Binh and currently lives in Vietnam. She is a verteran of the Vietnamese war as well as being the first female combatant/war correspondent at the front when China attacked Vietnam in 1979.
She has been a strong advocate of human rights and political reform in her own country, for which she was expelled from the Vietnamese Communist party in 1989. On April 13 1991 she was imprisoned without trial for a speech that she gave advocating political reform. She was accused by the government of Vietnam of collaborating with "reactionary organizations" and smuggling "secret documents" out of the country to foreign countries .She was immedialely recognized by P.E.N Writers Club, Anmesty International, and other human rights organizations as a political prisoner. Her arrest and imprisonment sparked international protest. She was released from prison seven months later in November of 1991.
Before her books were banned by the Vietnamese government, she was the popular selling author of serious fiction in Vietnam. Her second novel "Beyond Illusions" sold 100,000 copies and "Paradise of the Blind" sold 40,000 copies before the authorities pulled it from the shelves. Her short fiction has also appeared in the anthology "Night Again : Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam" by Linh Dinh.
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