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RULE BREAKER: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

NIGERIAN AUTHOR Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has won the PEN Pinter prize for 2018.

The award, which was established in memory of the late Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, is awarded to writers with “outstanding literary merit”.

Reacting to the news, the 40-year-old said: “I admired Harold Pinter’s talent, his courage, his lucid dedication to telling his truth, and I am honoured to be given an award in his name.”

Antonia Fraser, the biographer and Harold Pinter’s widow, said Adichie embodies “those qualities of courage and outspokenness which Harold much admired”.

Maureen Freely, chair of trustees for English PEN, said: “In this age of the privatised, marketised self, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the exception who defies the rule.

“Sophisticated beyond measure in her understanding of gender, race, and global inequality, she guides us through the revolving doors of identity politics, liberating us all.”

In addition to Freely and Fraser, Philippe Sands, Alex Clark and Inua Ellams, poet, playwright and creator of Barber Shop Chronicles, were also on the judging panel.

Adichie joins a list of recipients including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Tom Stoppard.

The Purple Hibiscus novelist’s work includes Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah

The award will be presented to Adichie on October 9 at a public ceremony held at the British Library.

FEMINISM

During a recent appearance on US TV programme The Daily Show, the award-winning novelist’s shared her thoughts on the importance of male feminists.

She told host Trevor Noah: “I think you can change women all you want. If you don’t change men, nothing changes.

“I also think, sadly, that we live in a world where men are more likely to listen to men.”

She added: “Men need to not think of feminism as something that’s attacking them...They need to understand that feminism is something that’s good for everyone because, really, when all of us are released from gender rules, we’re all better off.”

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