News
January 2025
Press Release
The Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing Announces its 2024 Winner
The Christopher G. Moore Foundation is delighted to announce the winner of their eighth annual literary prize honouring books that feature human rights themes.
The Jury of the 2024 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing have chosen a Uyghur poet’s stunning memoir of life under the most coercive surveillance regime in history.
Waiting to be Arrested at Night by Tahir Hamut Izgil; translated and introduced by Joshua L. Freeman (Penguin Random House; Jonathan Cape) has been chosen as the best book with a human rights theme, published between 1 July, 2023 and 30 June 2024.
The 2024 jury, comprised of Jury Chair, journalist and activist Salil Tripathi, Burmese investigative journalist Thin Lei Win and journalist and editor Fahad Shah, were deeply moved by this unforgettable story of courage and survival.
Waiting to be Arrested at Night is the author’s personal account of how he and his family were trapped in an unimaginable situation - one forced upon them and their fellow Uyghurs by their government. Izgil’s story is set inside Xinjiang, where daily life exists in a world of surveillance, repression and constant fear. His experiences focus a spotlight on a group whose suffering has often been overshadowed by political rhetoric and misinformation. As it charts China’s ongoing destruction of a community and a way of life, the book is both an urgent call for the world to awaken to a humanitarian catastrophe and a sobering look at the human cost of oppression.
Tahir Hamut Izgil is one of the foremost poets writing in the Uyghur language. He grew up in Kashgar, in the southwest of the Uyghur homeland. After attending college in Beijing, he returned to the Uyghur region and emerged as a prominent film director. He currently lives near Washington, D.C. Joshua L. Freeman is a historian of twentieth-century China and a translator of Uyghur poetry. He is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, in Taiwan.
Foundation Founder, Christopher G. Moore says:
“The shortlisted books—five titles—were some of the best submissions we’ve received in the last eight years of awarding the prize. This abundance of books worthy of recognition made the decision difficult – particularly between the final two. In the end, the jurors selected Waiting to be Arrested at Night as the winning title. The book is a first-hand account written by Tahir Hamut Izgil, a renowned Uyghur poet, filmmaker, and activist. The author provides memorable descriptions of the conversion of schools, hospitals, and government offices into so-called study centres. Tahir Hamut Izgil documents an oppressive system as his colleagues and friends slowly disappear into ‘study centres’. The author's dystopian landscape will long haunt you. It is a reminder that we must never forget the importance of human rights protection. When human rights disappear, so do people, dignity and hope.”
The Jury commented:
“As jury members, we each had a deeply emotional reaction to Waiting to be Arrested at Night. The beauty and artistry of Izgil’s words contrasts sharply with the harsh reality of his situation. By illustrating chapters with his own poetry, Izgil conveys the pervasive environment of fear in an exceptionally powerful way. We are reminded that there are real people at the heart of these geopolitical struggles. We cannot turn away from injustice and remain human; we must take action.”
Faced with a record number of high quality submissions and a remarkable shortlist, the Jury would like to recognise another very close contender for the prize.
An Honourable Mention goes to Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista, a meticulously reported and deeply human chronicle of the Philippines' drug war. It is a fearless, powerfully written, on-the-ground account of a country descending towards fascism, told through harrowing stories of the Philippines' state-sponsored assassinations of its own citizens. Patricia Evangelista is a trauma journalist and former investigative reporter for the Philippine news company, Rappler.
The Jury said:
“Some People Need Killing is a remarkably well researched and written journalistic account of a human rights issue that needs to be exposed and challenged. The Philippines is a country that gets little attention in the world’s media. Evangelista’s book brings that attention in a way that is immensely readable and highly revealing.”
The Moore Prize was established in 2015 to provide funds and recognition to authors who, through their work, contribute to the universality of human rights and to give a platform to human rights issues that are important in our current societies. This unique initiative is awarded annually, as chosen by a panel of judges whose own work focuses on human rights.
The winner and translator of the Moore Prize winner will share the £1000 prize.
Notes to Editors:
The Christopher G. Moore Foundation and Moore Prize are named after Christopher G. Moore, the Canadian novelist and essayist. The Christopher G. Moore Foundation is a registered UK charity dedicated to supporting authors who promote human rights and monitor its infringements.
Thin Lei Win is an award-winning Europe-based multimedia investigative journalist specialising in food and climate issues. She is Lead Reporter for the Food Systems Newsroom of Lighthouse Reports, a collaborative journalism outlet focusing on public interest investigations, curates her own newsletter Thin Ink and hosts The Index, a podcast based on the Global Organised Crime Index. Born and raised in Myanmar, Thin is also the co-founder of The Kite Tales, a unique preservation project chronicling the lives and histories of ordinary people across Myanmar and which has been supporting Myanmar storytellers since the military seized power in February 2021. Her extensive global experience includes nearly 13 years as an international correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Thomson Reuters media company, and setting up Myanmar Now, an award-winning bilingual news agency, in the run-up to Myanmar's historic 2015 elections.
Salil Tripathi is a board member of PEN International, where he has chaired its Writers in Prison Committee. He is also a trustee of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and has been a researcher at Amnesty International. At the Institute for Human Rights and Business, he is a senior adviser, working on discrimination, technology, and conflict. He is also a senior associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership. He is the author of four works of non-fiction: Offence: The Hindu Case about freedom of expression and Hindu nationalism; Detours: Songs of the Open Road, a collection of travel essays, and The Colonel Who Would Not Repent, an account of Bangladesh's war of independence and its aftermath. He recently co-edited, with Shilpa Gupta, a volume of writings by imprisoned poets, called For, In Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit. Salil is Jury Chair of the 2024 Prize Jury.
Fahad Shah is a journalist and editor who mainly focuses on human rights, politics, economy and social issues in South Asia. In 2011, he founded The Kashmir Walla, an independent digital media outlet known for its fearless reporting on politics, culture, and human rights in the region. Shah has been published in over three dozen international publications, including The Atlantic, Christian Science Monitor, Time, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, South China Morning Post, The Nation, Spiegel, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera. He has also produced documentaries and news videos for Channel4, Al Jazeera, TRT World, Business Insider, and SCMP Films. A recipient of the prestigious Human Rights Press Award in 2021, his work has also been supported by grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the National Geographic Society. Beyond journalism, Shah has contributed to academic circles, serving as a researcher and consultant on Kashmiri affairs for international think tanks.
Adrienne Loftus Parkins is a Trustee of the Foundation and will act as an advisor and planner for the 2024 judging panel. Her vast experience includes being the Chief Judge of the Moore Prize 2021 judging panel. Adrienne is also the founder and former director of the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature where she focused on promoting contemporary pan-Asian writing and championing emerging Asian/British Asian writers throughout the UK. She was instrumental in the founding of the multi-discipline festival Bangkok Edge and M Fest-Festival of Muslim Cultures and Ideas.
Christopher G. Moore is a retired law professor and Canadian author whose novels have a Southeast Asian connection. He is best known for his Vincent Calvino Crime series. He has also written half a dozen non-fiction books examining the connection of language, literature and culture. His published essays discuss human rights, freedom of speech and censorship.
The Foundation Trustees are Daniel Vaver, Christopher G. Moore, Adrienne Loftus Parkins and Busakorn Suriyasarn
The winner of the 2024 Moore Prize will be announced on Wednesday, 8 January, 2025.
Photo by Adrian Infernus on Unsplash