Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Wins PEN Pinter Prize
The Nigerian author was awarded one of literature's top prizes for her "refusal to be deterred or detained by the categories of others."
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has just been announced as the winner for the 2018 PEN Pinter Prize.
The prize is annually awarded to a writer from Ireland, Britain, or the Commonwealth and is named after the Nobel-Prize winning playwright and human rights activist Harold Pinter. The award is given to a writer with an "unflinching, unswerving gaze upon the world" who strives "to define the real truth of our lives and our societies."
This year's judges praised Adichie for her "refusal to be deterred or detained by the categories of others," describing her as "sophisticated beyond measure in her understanding of gender, race and global inequality."
Responding to the news of the award, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said, "I admired Harold Pinter's talent, his courage, his lucid dedication to telling his truth, and I am honoured to be given an award in his name."
Adichie will receive the prize on October 9 at the British library where she will also announce her co-winner for the International Writer of Courage Award who will be selected from a shortlist of international writers.
Former winners of the award include Michael Longley, Margaret Atwood, James Fenton, Salman Rushdie, Tom Stoppard, Carol Ann Duffy,David Hare, Hanif Kureishi, and Tony Harrison.