Arundhati Roy Wins PEN Pinter Prize 2024

Arundhati Roy has been awarded the prestigious PEN Pinter Prize 2024, despite recent approval for legal proceedings against her under the stringent UAPA law by the Delhi lieutenant-governor. Roy will accept the award on October 10, 2024, at a ceremony co-hosted by the British Library, where she will also deliver an address, according to a statement from the award organisers.

The PEN Pinter Prize, established in 2009 in memory of Nobel Laureate playwright Harold Pinter, is awarded annually by English PEN to a writer who embodies Pinter’s spirit of casting an ‘unflinching, unswerving’ gaze upon the world.

Ruth Borthwick, chair of English PEN, actor and activist Khalid Abdalla, and writer-musician Roger Robinson comprised the judging panel that selected Roy. Borthwick praised Roy for telling “urgent stories of injustice with wit and beauty,” recognizing her as an internationalist thinker with a powerful voice. Abdalla lauded her as a “luminous voice of freedom and justice” whose work remains timely and essential. Robinson highlighted Roy’s dedication to social justice, noting her extensive body of work that addresses environmental and human rights issues.

The award will be shared with a ‘Writer of Courage,’ selected by Roy from a shortlist of cases supported by English PEN. This co-winner, celebrated for defending freedom of expression at great personal risk, will be announced during the ceremony.

Roy expressed her delight at receiving the prize, stating, “I wish Harold Pinter were here 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.”