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

Indian Express

10-07-2025

Sudanese-Scottish author Leila Aboulela was named winner of the 2025 PEN Pinter Prize, on Wednesday, joining a prestigious list of writers who, in the spirit of Harold Pinter, have cast an 'unflinching, unswerving gaze upon the world.'
The announcement was made at English PEN's annual summer party in London, where Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner, 2007) and Amira Ghazalla (Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, 2017) brought Aboulela's work to life in moving readings before an audience of writers, publishers, and cultural figures.
Calling the honour 'a complete and utter surprise,' Aboulela said the award brings expansion and depth to the meaning of freedom of expression and the stories that get heard. '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,' she said.
Aboulela will formally receive the prize at a ceremony on October 10 at the British Library, where she will also announce the Writer of Courage, an individual persecuted for their work defending free expression, with whom she will share the honour. The title has previously been bestowed on figures such as British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah (2024) who was persecuted for 'spreading false news' and Uyghur folklore expert Rahile Dawut (2023), who was was reportedly sentenced to life in prison by Chinese authorities on charges of endangering state security.
Born in Cairo and raised in Khartoum, Aboulela moved to Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1990. Her work explores the themes of migration, faith, memory, and the interior lives of Muslim women navigating the intersections of culture, belief, and belonging. Her novels, including The Translator (1999), Minaret (2005), and most recently, River Spirit (2023), have earned critical acclaim, have been translated into 15 languages, and are now studied in universities.
Aboulela was the first winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and has won both the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award and the Scottish Book Awards. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of Aberdeen and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
This year's judges, Ruth Borthwick, Chair of English PEN; poet and author Mona Arshi; and novelist Nadifa Mohamed, praised Aboulela for the force of her storytelling. 'Leila is a writer for this moment,' said Borthwick. 'She tells us rarely heard stories that make us think anew about who lives in our neighbourhoods and communities.'
Arshi noted the 'subtlety and courage' with which Aboulela brings silenced lives to the forefront, while Mohamed lauded her for examining 'the interior lives of migrants' and writing with 'a commitment to make the lives and decisions of Muslim women central to her fiction.'
The judges emphasised how Aboulela's work, spanning novels, short stories, and radio plays, provides 'a balm, a shelter, and an inspiration' amid global tumult and displacement, particularly poignant given the ongoing conflicts in Sudan, Gaza, and beyond.
Named after the late Harold Pinter, the Nobel Laureate whose fierce moral clarity defined much of post-war British drama, the PEN Pinter Prize honours writers who exhibit what Pinter called an 'unflinching, unswerving' gaze upon the world. Since its inception in 2009, the award has recognized writers such as Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie (2018), Arundhati Roy (2024), and, Salman Rushdie (2014), who have consistently challenged political complacency through literature.
The tradition continues in Aboulela's work.
Aishwarya Khosla is a journalist currently serving as Deputy Copy Editor at The Indian Express. Her writings examine the interplay of culture, identity, and politics.
She began her career at the Hindustan Times, where she covered books, theatre, culture, and the Punjabi diaspora. Her editorial expertise spans the Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab and Online desks.
She was the recipient of the The Nehru Fellowship in Politics and Elections, where she studied political campaigns, policy research, political strategy and communications for a year.
She pens The Indian Express newsletter, Meanwhile, Back Home.
Write to her at [e-mail] or [e-mail]. You can follow her on Instagram: @ink_and_ideology, and X: @KhoslaAishwarya. ... Read More