CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE WINS 2018 PEN PINTER PRIZE

LAGOS -Nigeria’s prolific author of many literary works, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has emerged winner of 2018 PEN Pinter Prize for for her literary works which have traveled many frontiers showing us what is important in the world” says Antonia Byatt, Director of English PEN.Her works include Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, Americanah and Dear Ijeawele.

The PEN Pinter Prize was established in 2009 by the charity English PEN, in defence of freedom of expression and promotes literature, in memory of Nobel-Laureate and playwright, Harold Pinter.  The prize is awarded annually to a writer who has made outstanding literary contribution in the commonwealth. Adichie will receive the award at a public ceremony at the British Library of Congress on Tuesday, 9 October, 2018.

Reacting to the award the Adichie said, “I admired Harold Pinter’s talent, his courage, his lucid dedication to telling his truth, and I am honored to be given an award in his name.”

One of the judges Maureen Freely said: that “In this age of the privatized, marketized self, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the exception who defies the rule.  In her gorgeous fictions, but just as much in her TED talks and essays, she refuses to be deterred or detained by the categories of others.  Sophisticated beyond measure in her understanding of gender, race, and global inequality, she guides us through the revolving doors of identity politics, liberating us all”.

Antonia Fraser, Harold Pinter’s widow, said: “I greet the tenth award of the PEN Pinter Prize with great enthusiasm. Not only is Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie a brilliant, compelling writer but she embodies in herself those qualities of courage and outspokenness which Harold much admired.”