Adichie wins PEN Pinter Prize 2018

In the UK, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been awarded the 2018 PEN Pinter Prize, reports the Bookseller.

Founded in 2009 in honour of the playwright Harold Pinter, the annual prize is awarded to a writer from Britain, the Republic of Ireland or the Commonwealth with a body of work that shows ‘outstanding literary merit’, who casts an ‘unflinching, unswerving’ gaze on the world and shows a ‘fierce intellectual determination … to define the real truth of our lives and our societies’.

The chair of judges and chair of trustees for English PEN, Maureen Freely, said of Adichie: ‘In this age of the privatised, marketised self, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the exception who defies the rule. In her gorgeous fictions, but just as much in her TED talks and essays, she refuses to be deterred or detained by the categories of others. Sophisticated beyond measure in her understanding of gender, race, and global inequality, she guides us through the revolving doors of identity politics, liberating us all.’

Adichie said she felt ‘honoured’ to be given an award in Pinter’s name, adding that she admired his ‘talent, his courage, his lucid dedication to telling his truth’.

Adichie will receive the award at a public ceremony at the British Library on 9 October, where she will deliver an address.

During the event, Adichie will announce her co-winner, the International Writer of Courage for 2018, selected from a shortlist of international freedom of expression cases supported by English PEN. The recipient will be an international writer who is ‘active in defense of freedom of expression, often at great risk to their own safety and liberty’.

For more information about the prize, see the website.

Category: International news