At the Frankfurt Book Fair, PEN's Centenary Book was awarded as BEST MOTOVUN BOOK 2021 by the first Kiran-and-Pramod-Award —Best Book of the Year in all categories and by unanimity of the judges.
Published as part of PEN International's Centenary celebrations, PEN International. An Illustrated History is the extraordinary story of how PEN has placed the celebration of literature and the defence of free speech at the centre of humanity's struggle against repression since 1921. Edited by Carles Torner and Jan Martens, the book takes the reader through the key moments of PEN's history over the last 100 years, in 320 pages and more than 500 pictures, letters, documents, posters and maps. The authors are Ginevra Avalle, Jennifer Clement, Peter McDonald, Rachel Potter, Carles Torner and Laetitia Zecchini.
To commemorate its 40th anniversary, Roli Books had instituted the Kiran and Pramod Kapoor Best Book Award under the aegis of the Motovun Group on International Publishers. The award is to recognise excellence in publishing and celebrate close cooperation among the publishing fraternity. The first award was presented on October 19 during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Three days after the award was announced in Frankfurt, both editors of the book met in Brussels at the home of Jan Martens to celebrate the award with friends and with the whole PEN and MGIP communities.
