On 13 January 2021, the PEN Award for Freedom of Expression honored Dangarembga “for her remarkable work in fighting for freedom of expression.”
Dangarembga is a novelist, poet, activist, filmmaker and playwright. Her novel, “This Mournable Body” was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.
A founding member of PEN Zimbabwe, Dangarembga’s award comes on heels of last year’s PEN Awardee for Freedom of Expression, Ugandan academic, writer and feminist activist Dr. Stella Nyanzi.
The PEN Award for Freedom of Expression is the first of a series of events in 2021 marking the PEN International Centenary. Formerly known as the Oxfam Novib/ PEN Award for Freedom of Expression, “the award was originally given in as a collaboration of PEN International, the PEN Emergency Fund and Oxfam Novib. It has been given to writers who continue to work for freedom of expression in the face of persecution since 2005”, according to PEN International’s webiste.
The award ceremony will be streamed live as part of the opening night of the online Winternachten International Literature Festival at the Hague.