Bad Feminist author Roxane Gay has been named winner of PEN USA’s Freedom to Write award, a prize that goes to individuals who have “demonstrated exceptional courage in the defence of free expression”.
The news was announced via Literary Hub, and follows John Kiriakou’s winning of PEN USA’s first amendment award. Kiriakou, the former CIA agent who confirmed the US government’s use of waterboarding and was subsequently jailed, was praised by PEN for his “bravery in the face of unspeakable adversity” [PDF]. Both Kiriakou and Gay will receive their prizes at PEN’s annual literary awards festival on 16 November.
“The freedom to write,” Gay told Literary Hub, “has been one of my life’s greatest blessings and it is a freedom that should be available to everyone who wants or needs to share their voice … It is humbling to be considered worthy of such an award. I am thrilled and honoured.”
Gay is the author of books including the essay collection Bad Feminist, and the thriller An Untamed State. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in places from Best American Short Stories to the New York Times Book Review and the Guardian. She is the co-editor of PANK, and has almost 100,000 Twitter followers. Her new book, Hunger, is out next year.
Literary Hub, for which she is a contributing editor, said that in her writing, “she fights for women, for the LGBT community, people of colour and anyone else who’s disenfranchised, who’s made to feel weak or small, and does so with passion and dedication”.
“Roxane Gay, in all her work, connects her own struggles with others, and embodies the best of us,” wrote Jonathan Russell Clark. “Most importantly, particularly in regards to the Freedom to Write Award, she is a brave writer. Though strong-minded and tough, she’s the first to see the complexity in any given issue or situation. She is clear and morally astute, yet never implies she’s better than anyone, or perfect in any way.”
