LONDON: Sudanese author Leila Aboulela has been named the winner of the 2025 PEN Pinter Prize, honoring her literary contributions that explore themes of faith, migration and the lives of Muslim women in displacement.
The award was announced at English PEN’s annual summer party on Wednesday at the October Gallery in London.
Judges praised the author for her “nuanced and rich perspectives on themes that are vital in our contemporary world: Faith, migration and displacement,” calling her work “a balm, a shelter and an inspiration.”
Aboulela, who grew up in Khartoum and has lived in Aberdeen, Scotland since 1990, is known for her six novels including “Minaret,” “The Translator,” a New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year, and “Lyrics Alley,” as well as two short story collections.
Her latest collection “Elsewhere, Home” won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award.
Aboulela’s latest novel “River Spirit,” which was published in 2023, portrays the period leading up to the British conquest of Sudan in 1898, shedding light on the complex human dimensions of the conflict between Britain and Sudan, Christianity and Islam, and the dynamics of colonizer versus colonized.
On receiving the award, she said: “For someone like me, a Muslim Sudanese immigrant who writes from a religious perspective, probing the limits of secular tolerance, this recognition feels truly significant. It brings expansion and depth to the meaning of freedom of expression and whose stories get heard.”
She will officially receive the award at a ceremony at the British Library on Oct. 10, where she will also announce the recipient of the accompanying Writer of Courage award.
This year’s judging panel included poet and author Mona Arshi, novelist Nadifa Mohamed, and English PEN chair Ruth Borthwick, who praised Aboulela’s work for its literary depth and social relevance.
“Leila Aboulela’s writing is extraordinary in its range and sensibility,” Borthwick said. “From jewel-like short stories to tender novels, she tells us rarely heard stories that make us think anew about who lives in our neighborhoods and communities, and how they navigate their lives.”
Arshi said that the author “offers us nuanced and rich perspectives on themes that are vital in our contemporary world: Faith, migration, and displacement,” while Mohamed praised Aboulela’s work for centring “the lives and decisions of Muslim women.”
“Her work is marked by a commitment to make the lives and decisions of Muslim women central, and to examine their struggles and pleasures with dignity,” Mohamed said.
The PEN Pinter Prize was established in 2009 in memory of Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter. Previous winners include Arundhati Roy in 2024 and Michael Rosen in 2023.
