Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1979?
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: Cambodian
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | nb2007024650 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/nb2007024650 |
| HEADING: | Prum, Virak, 1980- |
| 000 | 00358nz a2200121n 450 |
| 001 | 7338114 |
| 005 | 20071030051343.0 |
| 008 | 071029n| acannaabn |n aaa |
| 010 | __ |a nb2007024650 |
| 035 | __ |a (Uk)006949358 |
| 040 | __ |a Uk |b eng |c Uk |
| 100 | 1_ |a Prum, Virak, |d 1980- |
| 670 | __ |a Only love, 2007: |b t.p. (Virak Prum) back cover (PhD, born in 1980 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia) |
PERSONAL
Born 1980, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; married.
EDUCATION:Studied in a Cambodian monastery.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and artist. Previously, worked as a farmer, a fisherman, and on a palm oil plantation.
MIILITARY:Served in the Cambodian military.
AWARDS:Trafficking in Persons Hero designation, U.S. State Department, 2012.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Vannak Anan Prum is a Cambodian writer and artist. Born in Phnom Penh, he studied at a monastery in his native country. When he was a young adult, Prum was forced to work as a fisherman on a boat for little to no pay.
Prum tells the story of his trafficking in his first book, The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea: A Graphic Memoir of Modern Slavery. He begins the book by describing his childhood. Prum began drawing as a young boy, and it became clear that he had a talent. One of his favorite subjects to draw was the actor and martial arts figure, Bruce Lee. Prum’s adolescence was difficult, as his stepfather became increasingly abusive. Finally, he chose to run away from home. In order to support himself, Prum joined the Cambodian military. After serving for a time, he moved to the monastery and learned from the monks there. Prum wanted to be a professional artist, but he did not believe he could make a living with that profession, so he became a farmer. Shortly after he married, Prum heard about a lucrative job in the fishing industry in Thailand. He took the job, but realized he had actually become a slave. After escaping, Prum was trafficked again and forced to work on a palm oil plantation. Later, he was put in jail. Finally, Prum was set free and allowed to return to his wife.
Critics offered favorable assessments of The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea. Christine Ro, reviewer on the Hyperallergic website, commented: “Cambodian artist Vannak Anan Prum has an incredible story to tell—even before being forced into slavery. In this image rich book, Prum’s story is told simply and supported by related materials brought together, in part, by Jocelyn and Ben Pederick, who have been reporting his story for Radio Free Asia.” Ro concluded: “Whether it’s tattooing other enslaved men aboard a fishing boat or drawing the details of his past, the power of art and narrative shine through The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor suggested: “Excellent drawing accompanies a remarkable story of persistence—and yet the artist still has trouble making a living in his native Cambodia, while human trafficking on land and sea continues to flourish.” A writer in Publishers Weekly noted that the book featured “powerful, detailed full-color drawings.” The same writer remarked: “The seas teem with men like Prum; this book makes them visible, through his unique story.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2018, review of The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea: A Graphic Memoir of Modern Slavery.
Publishers Weekly, March 26, 2018, review of The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea, p. 102.
ONLINE
Human Rights First, https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/ (July 9, 2018), Solveig Haugen, article about author.
Hyperallergic, https://hyperallergic.com/ (May 21, 2018), Christine Ro, review of The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea.
Washington Post Online, https://www.washingtonpost.com/ (June 20, 2012), Michael Livingston, article about author.
Human trafficking victim Vannak Anan Prum uses art to tell his story
By Michael Livingston June 20, 2012 Email the author
Vannak Anan Prum rolls up the sleeves of his navy-blue plaid shirt, as if it is his duty to inspect the memorial to the 16th president of the United States. He stretches his tattooed arms around the columns of the Lincoln Memorial and examines every curve, line and crack of the yule marble from behind black-and-yellow Levi’s glasses.
Prum is 33, a calm and patient former monk from Cambodia. This is his first visit to the United States — his first time anywhere outside of Southeast Asia — and he marvels at the buildings around him. “He can’t believe it’s really stone!” says Prum’s interpreter, Hok Lor.
Lor, a Gaithersburg native, has been assigned to Prum as a tour guide and mentor. He explains to Prum who Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were, and how they fought for equality for all people in the United States.
“In Cambodia, they just stack the stones on top of each other,” Lor said. “He’s never seen stone so smooth.”
Little in Prum’s life had gone smoothly until this point. On Tuesday, he was recognized by the State Department as one of 10 “heroes” in the fight against human trafficking. Prum isn’t merely an observer but a victim, and he has captured his experiences in a series of drawings that he hopes will help stop this modern form of slavery.
In 2006, Prum was kidnapped from Cambodia and forced into virtual slavery in Thailand. For three years, he worked on a fishing boat for 20 hours a day and was, according to the State Department, “mistreated, starved, and tortured.” He slept little and worked fatigued. Those who could not perform were beaten, thrown overboard or killed. Prum says he saw a man decapitated and his body tossed into the sea. Even those who tried jumping ship could not stray far; the boat would just turn around and retrieve them.
When the boat stopped in Malaysia, Prum and his cousin escaped, swimming to shore and then running into the jungle. They sought help from police officers and were placed in jail until the Malaysian Embassy could be contacted. But they soon realized that they had fallen into another trap.
Two men arrived at the jail and paid the police officers for Prum. He was taken to a palm oil plantation where he worked for the next four months, paid only enough money to buy a carton of cigarettes.
Freedom did not come easily or quickly. On the plantation, Prum was injured by others who had started a sword fight. After being treated in a hospital, he again found himself behind bars. His mother was ultimately notified of her son’s fate and contacted Manfred Hornung, a legal adviser with a Cambodian human rights organization. With Hornung’s help, Prum returned home on May 15, 2010.
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Contemporary Abolitionist of the Month: Vannak Anan Prum
Related Campaigns & Topics
Bankrupt Slavery: Dismantling the Business of Human Trafficking, Human Trafficking
By Solveig Haugen,
The fight to end slavery is rooted in history and extends until today. Each month we profile some of the brave men and women, both contemporary and historical, who have fought to eradicate slavery. Our contemporary abolitionist of the month is Vannak Anan Prum.
Vannak Anan Prum was a slave from 2005 to 2009. Originally from Cambodia, Prum was lured away from his family and pregnant wife by the promise of a better job. Instead he was trafficked to Thailand where he became a slave on a fishing boat. Starved and tortured, he still had to work 20-hour days. Those who couldn’t perform were beaten, thrown overboard, or killed.
While the boat was anchored in Malaysia, Prum escaped with his cousin by jumping off the boat and swimming to shore. He sought help from the Malaysian police, but instead was sold by corrupt officials to a palm oil plantation. For four months, Prum was forced to work on the plantation for extremely low wages. Following an incident with another worker, Prum was put in detention, where he managed to contact Malaysian and Cambodian NGOs who helped free and repatriate him after several months.
Prum joined the fight to end human trafficking. A talented artist, he raises awareness of slavery within the Thai fishing industry through drawings that depict his years of enslavement. His story and artwork have received world recognition. In 2012 he was named one of the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Heroes. His story appears in a documentary produced by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center titled, “Journey to Freedom.”
The involvement of survivors is essential to anti-trafficking efforts. Human Rights First’s blueprint, “How to Dismantle the Business of Human Trafficking,” includes survivor-led recommendations. All law enforcement and criminal justice procedures should follow a victim-centered approach. This means promoting better coordination between victim advocates and the private sector, applying the principle of non-punishment to all victims of trafficking, and making victim services available at all stages of the criminal process.
QUOTED: "powerful, detailed full-color drawings."
"The seas teem with men like Prum; this book makes them visible, through his unique story."
The Dead Eye And The Deep Blue
Sea: A Graphic Memoir Of Modern
Slavery
Publishers Weekly.
265.13 (Mar. 26, 2018): p102. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Dead Eye And The Deep Blue Sea: A Graphic Memoir Of Modern Slavery
Vannak Anan Prum, as told to Ben and Jocelyn Pederick. Seven Stories, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-60980-602-6
This firsthand account of modern slavery, told in powerful, detailed full-color drawings that feel as if they've been inscribed in blood, opens a window on a world rarely acknowledged. Cambodian artist Prum begins with his childhood and time studying in a monastery, then shares how he left his village and his pregnant wife in search of work, only to end up being captured and sold into slavery twice, first to a fishing boat, then a landowner. For five years, he was held captive along with others who had been deceived and trafficked from Cambodia and other countries. But his artistic talent, first noticed and encouraged by a Vietnamese soldier when Prum was a boy, proved to be an essential means of survival: Prum draws for food, for safety, and his own sanity. Drawings become his only way to explain his story to loved ones, upon his return home. This graphic memoir tells the urgent truth that slavery persists in contemporary times and asks readers to question their unknowing participation as consumers in the global trade systems that sustain it. Prum displays a great generosity of spirit in putting his pain to the page; as he says, he now "has a wound that will never heal." The seas teem with men like Prum; this book makes them visible, through his unique story. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Dead Eye And The Deep Blue Sea: A Graphic Memoir Of Modern Slavery." Publishers
Weekly, 26 Mar. 2018, p. 102. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc
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/A532997168/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=f5cf0068. Accessed 24 June 2018. Gale Document Number: GALE|A532997168
QUOTED: "Excellent drawing accompanies a remarkable story of persistence—and yet the artist still has trouble making a living in his native Cambodia, while human trafficking on land and sea continues to flourish."
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Prum, Vannak Anan: THE DEAD EYE AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Prum, Vannak Anan THE DEAD EYE AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA Seven Stories (Adult Nonfiction) $24.95 5, 22 ISBN: 978-1-60980-602-6
A harrowing graphic memoir by a Cambodian survivor of human trafficking.
As a boy, Prum loved drawing and showed obvious talent. "One of my first memories is of drawing pictures of Bruce Lee in the dirt in front of our house," he writes, a memory captured in finely etched detail toward the beginning of his powerful memoir. As a teenager, he had run away from his boyhood home, determined to escape the brutalities of his stepfather. Since there was no money in drawing, Prum became a soldier and then a monk. Discovering that life in the monastery didn't suit him, and realizing art alone could not support him, he found work harvesting crops. There he met his wife, and soon she became pregnant, forcing the author to find more reliable work to support his family. He learned about a better-paying opportunity within the Thai fishing industry, but by the time he boarded his ship, he realized that instead of finding the higher pay the middle man had promised, he had been sold into slavery. He wouldn't see his wife or even his native Cambodia again for five years: "Three years and seven months on a boat, four months on the plantation, one month in the hospital, and eight months in Malaysian police stations and jails." On the boat, he witnessed a decapitation and other slaves thrown overboard when they were too sick to work. His escape to Malaysia led him to corrupt police who resold him to work on the plantation, where the owner was protected by the legal system. He was incarcerated "for illegal migration" before he agreed to lie to clear the plantation owner and returned home to a wife who didn't recognize or believe him--until he rendered this graphic account. "And so I drew my way back into my family home," he explains.
Excellent drawing accompanies a remarkable story of persistence--and yet the artist still has trouble making a living in his native Cambodia, while human trafficking on land and sea continues to flourish.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Prum, Vannak Anan: THE DEAD EYE AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA." Kirkus Reviews, 15
Mar. 2018. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530650737 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=b5c6104b. Accessed 24 June 2018.
3 of 4 6/24/18, 9:49 PM
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A530650737
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QUOTED: "Cambodian artist Vannak Anan Prum has an incredible story to tell—even before being forced into slavery. In this image rich book, Prum’s story is told simply and supported by related materials brought together, in part, by Jocelyn and Ben Pederick, who have been reporting his story for Radio Free Asia."
"Whether it’s tattooing other enslaved men aboard a fishing boat or drawing the details of his past, the power of art and narrative shine through The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea."
A Harrowing Memoir Illustrates Modern-Day Slavery on Sea and Land
A testimony of human rights abuses occurring in Southeast Asia is charted in The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea: A Graphic Memoir of Modern Slavery.
Christine RoMay 21, 2018
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Vannak Anan Prum’s The Dead Eye and The Deep Blue Sea (image courtesy Seven Stories Press)
Cambodian artist Vannak Anan Prum has an incredible story to tell ― even before being forced into slavery. In this image rich book, Prum’s story is told simply and supported by related materials brought together, in part, by Jocelyn and Ben Pederick, who have been reporting his story for Radio Free Asia. The memoir is book-ended by texts from a slavery researcher, a comic’s journalist, and a Human Rights Watch expert. These accounts contextualize Prum’s experiences in light of historic Cambodian visual arts traditions and larger contemporary trends in labor slavery.
The account is chronological, beginning when Prum is a child, living in a Cambodian village during the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. His life is marked by poverty and a love of art. He carries this hobby from his first home, where he draws Bruce Lee in the dirt; through enlistment in the army, where he becomes popular for his drawings of bar girls; to domestic life on his in-laws’ farm, where he sculpts for a living. In between, he spends time at a monastery Angkor Wat, at Siem Reap, where he’s inspired by religious art.
Cover of Vannak Anan Prum’s The Dead Eye and The Deep Blue Sea (image courtesy Seven Stories Press)
Once Prum’s wife, Sokun, becomes pregnant, the couple decides he needs to find other work in order to support their family. So Prum sets out in search of employment away from the farm.
The descriptions are matter-of-fact, while the naive-style drawings are vivid. This is partly due to the bright colors of clothing and of landscapes, and partly due to the uncomplicated pen and pencil lines. Violence is understated and never dramatized, even when depicting beatings from his stepfather, or death on the battlefield.
This is especially true in the case of scenes of enslavement, which begin with Prum being tricked and coerced into crossing the border into Thailand, along with other Cambodians in search of work. Where the previous drawings have been bright and sun-lit, the scenes of captivity and border crossing are literally, and effectively, dark.
Vannak Anan Prum’s The Dead Eye and The Deep Blue Sea (image courtesy Seven Stories Press)
For the three years that follow, when Prum is enslaved on fishing boats, the dominant visual impression is of space — lots of open space framed by the rich blues of the sea, contrasting sharply with his confinement on board. Prum and his shipmates, who are from other Southeast Asian countries, catch fish, store it below deck in the freezer room, and offload each month’s catch onto a larger supply ship, in an exhausting cycle. This is lightened by Prum’s discovery that he has a talent for tattooing. Again, his artistic skills draw attention.
Vannak Anan Prum’s The Dead Eye and The Deep Blue Sea (image courtesy Seven Stories Press)
As in earlier stages on his journey, life onboard is portrayed without visual tricks or embellishments. Facial expressions are muted, and even horrific scenes — including a madman’s beheading and a captain’s whippings — are drawn with restraint. The impact of the casualness of these visuals underscores the harshness of Prum’s enslavement, where violence is routine.
Vannak Anan Prum’s The Dead Eye and The Deep Blue Sea (image courtesy Seven Stories Press)
Eventually Prum and a friend manage to escape, still, obstacles abound. Corrupt police and avaricious enslavers put Prum to work on a Malaysian palm plantation. It isn’t until he’s injured and hospitalized that he finally believes he has a chance to go home. Immigration issues complicate his return home. And even though aid workers pledge to help, Prum is imprisoned for months on charges of illegal migration.
Even, when upon finally reaching home, in Cambodia, to be reunited with his wife and to meet his daughter, the experience is fraught. Five years have passed since he left, looking for work, and Prum’s wife Sokun is angry and confused.
Vannak Anan Prum’s The Dead Eye and The Deep Blue Sea (image courtesy Seven Stories Press)
Reintegration into his family and his society is challenging. But in this difficult situation, as in his periods of captivity, his art helps him through. Prum begins to draw his story, a story his wife witnesses in his drawings. She learns about the terrible circumstances behind his absence, and comes to trust him again. As Prum writes, “I drew my way back into my family home.” Whether it’s tattooing other enslaved men aboard a fishing boat or drawing the details of his past, the power of art and narrative shine through The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea.
Vannak Anan Prum, The Dead Eye and The Deep Blue Sea: A Graphic Memoir of Modern Slavery, as told to Ben Pederick, text by Jocelyn Pederick, is scheduled to be published by Seven Stories Press in July 2018.
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