Posted on October 9, 2018 at 3:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie issued a call to ethical action to her fellow authors as she accepted the PEN Pinter Prize today.
The Nigerian author is known for her fiction including Americanah and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists.
In her Pinter acceptance lecture, titled “Shut Up and Write,” Adichie did not demand that authors lead political movements.
She did, however, reject the idea that “art is a valid reason for evading the responsibilities of citizenship – which are to think clearly, to remain informed, and, sometimes, to act and speak.”
(Which, of course, Adichie herself has done, by speaking out against Nigerian laws banning homosexuality and encouraging conversations about women's rights there.)
As PEN Pinter winner, Adichie also handed out this year’s International Writer of Courage title.
Waleed Abulkhair, a founding member of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia who is currently imprisoned, received that honor.
Read more on The Guardian’s website.
Categories: Today in Books