Indian-British author and activist Arundhati Roy has been awarded the PEN Pinter Prize 2024 during a ceremony at the British Library in London on Thursday, October 10.
During her acceptance speech for the prize, Roy pledged to raise awareness about the ongoing struggles of Palestinians and announced that her portion of the prize money will be donated to the Palestinian Children‘s Relief Fund.
She also shows solidarity with political prisoners in India.
About PEN Pinter Prize
The PEN Pinter Prize was created in 2009 by human rights charity English PEN in memory of Nobel-Laureate playwright Harold Pinter.
The PEN Pinter Prize is awarded annually to a UK, Republic of Ireland, Commonwealth, or former Commonwealth writer whose literary merit and intellectual determination define the truth of our lives and societies.
The prize is shared with a Writer of Courage who has been beaten for expressing their beliefs.
Roy shares PEN Pinter Prize with Egyptian writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah
Roy has named British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah as the ‘Writer of Courage 2024’, with whom she will share the award, recognising his bravery in the face of ongoing imprisonment in Egypt.
Abd el-Fattah, a 42-year-old Egyptian activist, has been imprisoned for over five years in Egypt for his stance on freedom of expression.
In her address, Roy said, “Why did I choose the jailed writer and blogger Alaa Abd el-Fattah as the Writer of Courage to share the PEN Pinter Prize with? For the same reason that Egyptian authorities have chosen to keep him in prison for two more years instead of releasing him last month.
“Because his voice is as beautiful as it is dangerous. Because his understanding of what we are facing today is as sharp as a dagger’s edge.”
Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Egyptian news website Mada Masr, accepted the award on Abd el-Fattah’s behalf, highlighting his bravery in the pursuit of truth.
“In his writing, his newspaper articles, social media posts and prison letters, Alaa was finding the truth in and through language; and he has always been doing it not as a self-serving act of contemplation, but as an invitation to learn, think along and move on with it,” Attalah said.
Naomi Klein, an author and columnist for the Guardian US, also spoke at the event, praising Abd el-Fattah who “embodies the relentless courage and intellectual depth that Arundhati Roy herself so powerfully represents, making her selection of him as the writer of courage profoundly fitting.”
