Leila Aboulela, a Sudanese-Scottish writer known for her profound portrayals of Muslim women’s inner lives and her exploration of identity, migration, and Islamic spirituality, has won this year’s PEN Pinter Prize for her powerful writing on migration, faith, and the experiences of women.

Aboulela described the award as “a complete and utter surprise,” expressing gratitude to English PEN and the judges for recognizing her work.

She said she was “honored to win a prize established in memory of Harold Pinter, a great writer who continues to inspire so much loyalty and consistent high regard.”

Reflecting on her identity, she added, “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.”

Leila Aboulela, born in 1964 in Cairo to an Egyptian mother and Sudanese father, was raised in Khartoum, Sudan, where she lived until 1987.

She studied at the Khartoum American School and the Sisters’ School, a private Catholic high school, before earning a degree in Economics with a specialization in Statistics from the University of Khartoum.

She later moved to the UK, completing an MSc and MPhil in Statistics at the London School of Economics. In 1990, she settled in Aberdeen, Scotland, where she began writing in 1992 while working as a lecturer and research assistant.

Aboulela is the author of six acclaimed novels, including The Translator (a New York Times 100 Notable Book), Minaret, Bird Summons, The Kindness of Enemies, Lyrics Alley (winner of the Scottish Book Awards), and River Spirit.

Her short story collection Elsewhere, Home won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award.

She was the first-ever winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and has been longlisted three times for the Orange Prize (now the Women’s Prize for Fiction).

Her work has been translated into fifteen languages, and her plays such as The Insider and The Mystic Life have been broadcast on BBC Radio.

She is Honorary Professor of the WORD Centre at the University of Aberdeen and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Source: Maktoob Media