Arundhati Roy won the PEN Pinter Prize, which is awarded annually to a writer residing in the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth, or the former Commonwealth who, in the words of Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize in Literature speech, casts an "unflinching, unswerving" gaze upon the world and shows a "fierce intellectual determination... to define the real truth of our lives and our societies."
Roy will be honored October 10 in a ceremony co-hosted by the British Library, where she will deliver an address. The prize will be shared with a Writer of Courage, "who is active in defense of freedom of expression, often at great risk to their own safety and liberty." The co-winner, selected by Roy from a shortlist of international cases supported by English PEN, will be announced at the ceremony.
Judge and chair of English PEN Ruth Borthwick said Roy "tells urgent stories of injustice with wit and beauty. While India remains an important focus, she is truly an internationalist thinker, and her powerful voice is not to be silenced."
Prize judge Khalid Abdalla praised Roy as a "luminous voice of freedom and justice whose words have come with fierce clarity and determination for almost 30 years now. Her books, her writings, the spirit with which her life is lived, have been a lodestar through the many crises and the darkness our world has faced since her first book, The God of Small Things.... In honoring Arundhati Roy this year, we are celebrating both the dignity of her body of work and the timeliness of her words, that arrive with the depth of her craft exactly when we need them most."
Judge Roger Robinson added that Roy was the unanimous choice for the award, "a testament to her unparalleled contribution to literature.... Roy's incisive commentary on issues ranging from environmental degradation to human rights abuses demonstrates her commitment to advocating for the marginalized and challenging the status quo. Her unique voice and unwavering dedication to these causes make her a deserving recipient of this honor."
Roy said: "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."
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Indian author Sanjana Thakur was named overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and will receive £5,000 (about $6,325) for her unpublished work "Aishwarya Rai," which takes its name from the famed Bollywood actress and reimagines the traditional adoption story. Granta magazine has published all the regional winning stories, which will also be available in a special print collection from Paper + Ink.
Chair of judges Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi said: "The short story form favors the brave and the bold writer. In 'Aishwarya Rai,' Sanjana Thakur employs brutal irony, sarcasm, cynicism and wry humour packaged in tight prose and stanza-like paragraphs to confront us with the fracturing of family and the self as a result of modern urban existence. No matter which city you live in, you'll recognize the stress-induced conditions like insomnia, restless leg, panic attacks and an obsession with a celebrity kind of beauty, in this this case, Bollywood. Thakur pushes this stinging absurdity as far as to suggest hiring mothers to replace inadequate ones. Rarely do we see satire pulled off so effortlessly."
Thakur commented: "I've spent ten out of 26 years living in countries not my own. India, where I'm from, is simultaneously strange and familiar, accepting and rejecting. Writing stories is a way for me to accept that Mumbai is a city I will long for even when I am in it; it is a way to remake 'place' in my mind. I am so thankful to the judges, my fellow shortlisted writers, and the other regional winners for writing beautiful stories. For my strange story--about mothers and daughters, about bodies, beauty standards, and Bombay street food--to find such a global audience is thrilling. I cannot express how wholly honoured I am to be the recipient of this incredible prize. I hope I continue writing stories that people want to read. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"