Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, who is currently facing legal action over remarks she made about Kashmir 14 years ago, was honoured with the prestigious Pen Pinter Prize 2024 on Thursday for her unwavering and courageous writings.
The award, which honours literature and promotes freedom of expression in honour of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, was established in 2009 by the charitable organisation English PEN.
She expressed her delight at being named this year’s winner amid an incomprehensible turn the world is taking.
“I am delighted to accept the PEN Pinter prize. I wish Harold Pinter were with us today to write about the almost incomprehensible turn the world is taking. Since he isn’t, some of us must do our utmost to try to fill his shoes,” she said.
This year’s judges were writer and musician Roger Robinson, actor and activist Khalid Abdalla, and chair of English PEN Ruth Borthwick. The acclaimed writer, who won the Booker Prize for her debut novel, The God of Small Things, was chosen.
In addition to accepting the award, she will also deliver an address on October 10 at an event co-hosted by the British Library.
With humour and grace, Roy narrates compelling tales of injustice. Although India continues to be a major area of interest, Borthwick stated that she is a true internationalist and that her strong voice should not be silenced.
Abdalla described Arundhati Roy as a brilliant voice for justice and freedom whose thoughts have been delivered with fierce clarity and determination for over 30 years.
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