A seriously ailing Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, 37, has been held since April 2003 in a maximum-security Cuban prison, serving a 25-year sentence for writing articles critical of the state. “In April, PEN announced that Hernandez Gonzalez would receive its 21st annual PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. The $10,000 award honors ‘international literary figures who have been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to freedom of expression.'”