Who is Leila Aboulela, the Sudanese-Scottish writer who just won the 2025 PEN Pinter Prize?

📰 In News: Leila Aboulela wins 2025 PEN Pinter Prize

Key Facts:

• Winner: Sudanese-Scottish author Leila Aboulela.
• Award: PEN Pinter Prize 2025 – honours writers with an “unflinching, unswerving gaze upon the world.”
• Ceremony: To be held on 10 October 2025 at the British Library, London.
• She will also announce the “Writer of Courage” – awarded to a persecuted writer defending free expression.

About Leila Aboulela:

• Born in Cairo, raised in Khartoum, moved to Aberdeen (Scotland) in 1990.
• Themes: migration, faith, memory, lives of Muslim women.
• Famous works: The Translator (1999), Minaret (2005), River Spirit (2023).
• First winner of Caine Prize for African Writing; also won Saltire Fiction Award & Scottish Book Awards.
• Honorary Professor at the University of Aberdeen; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

About PEN Pinter Prize:

• Established: 2009, named after Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter.
• Recognises writers who uphold truth, courage & freedom of expression.
• Past winners: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2018), Salman Rushdie (2014), Arundhati Roy (2024).
  
  
  Updated: July 17, 2025 01:45 PM IST