Jurors declare Arundhati Roy's PEN Pinter Prize victory in 2024 to be "her powerful voice not to be silenced."

The PEN Pinter Prize 2024 has been given to Arundhati Roy. English PEN established this annual award in 2009 to honor playwright Harold Pinter, a 2009 Nobel winner.

On October 10, Roy will accept the honor at a ceremony co-hosted by the British Library. She'll deliver an address as well.

In accordance with Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize in Literature speech, the prize is given annually to a writer of exceptional literary merit who resides in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, or the Commonwealth and who "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."

Actor Khalid Abdalla, writer Roger Robinson, and English PEN head Ruth Borthwick served on this year's jury for the award. Michael Rosen, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Tom Stoppard, Carol Ann Duffy, and Malorie Blackman are among the previous recipients of the honor.

Borthwick congratulated Roy, saying the writer uses humor and beauty to present compelling stories of injustice.

We would like to congratulate Arundhati Roy on her 2024 PEN Pinter Prize victory. Roy uses humor and beauty to portray compelling tales of injustice. Although India is still a major area of interest, Borthwick said, "she is a true internationalist and her strong voice is not to be silenced."

Roy, according to Abdalla, is a brilliant voice for justice and freedom whose views have been delivered for nearly thirty years with a fierce clarity and resolve.

Since the release of her first book, "The God of Small Things," Abdalla stated, "her books, her writings, and the spirit with which she lives her life have been a lodestar through the many crises and the darkness our world has faced."

"This year, as the world confronts the profound histories that have given rise to this moment in Gaza," he continued, "there has been an enormous need for writers who are 'unflinching and unswerving.'" We are honoring Arundhati Roy this year by appreciating her body of work as well as the relevance of her words, which come at just the right moment and with great skill.

According to Robinson, Roy's sharp criticism on a variety of topics, from human rights violations to environmental degradation, shows her dedication to standing up for the underprivileged and upending the existing quo.