Arundhati Roy Awarded 2024 PEN Pinter Prize Amid UAPA Controversy

Renowned Indian author Arundhati Roy has been honored with the prestigious PEN Pinter Prize for 2024. The award ceremony will take place on October 10, 2024, at the British Library. Roy will receive the award and deliver a speech at a ceremony co-hosted by the British Library on October 10.

This year’s jury for the PEN Pinter Prize comprised English PEN chair Ruth Borthwick, actor Khalid Abdalla, and writer Roger Robinson. The jury praised Roy, stating, “Arundhati Roy is truly an internationalist thinker, and her powerful voice is not to be silenced.”

“Unflinching and Unswerving” Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy, who won the Booker Prize, has been honored with the PEN Pinter Prize for her fearless and steadfast literary work. Her works have consistently challenged social norms and provoked critical thought on various global issues.

Congratulating Roy, Borthwick praised the author for her compelling storytelling and eloquence. "We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Arundhati Roy on receiving the PEN Pinter Prize 2024. Roy masterfully tells urgent stories of injustice with both wit and beauty. Though her work often centers on India, she is undeniably an internationalist thinker whose powerful voice cannot be silenced," Borthwick remarked.

Controversy Surrounding Arundhati Roy

The announcement of the award comes just weeks after authorities granted permission to prosecute Roy under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for allegedly making provocative speeches at an event in 2010. Despite these challenges, her contributions to literature and social justice continue to be celebrated internationally.

‘God of Small Things’ Arundhati Roy

Born in 1959, Arundhati Roy studied architecture in New Delhi, where she now resides. Her diverse educational background and life experiences have profoundly influenced her writing, enabling her to address complex social issues with depth and insight.

Arundhati Roy is best known for her novel ‘The God of Small Things’, which won the Booker Prize in 1997 and has been translated into more than 40 languages. She also authored ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’, which was long-listed for the Booker Prize in 2017. In addition to her novels, Roy has published several influential works of non-fiction, including ‘The Algebra of Infinite Justice’, ‘Listening to Grasshoppers’, and ‘Broken Republic’.

About PEN Pinter Prize

The PEN Pinter Prize, established in 2009 by the charity English PEN to honor freedom of expression and celebrate literature, commemorates Nobel Laureate playwright Harold Pinter. Pinter, a renowned British dramatist who passed away at 78 in 2008, received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005. 

The PEN Pinter Prize is awarded annually to a writer of exceptional literary merit who, as Harold Pinter described in his Nobel Prize speech, looks at the world with an "unflinching, unswerving" gaze and shows a strong determination to reveal the truth about our lives and societies. Roy's receipt of this award highlights her as one of the most important voices in contemporary literature.

Past recipients of this award include Michael Rosen, Margaret Atwood, Malorie Blackman, Salman Rushdie, Tom Stoppard, and Carol Ann Duffy.