South Sudanese writer Stella Gaitano and Sudanese-American poet Emi Mahmoud received the Freedom of Expression Prize 2025 from the Norwegian Authors’ Union (Den norske Forfatterforening – DnF).
The Freedom of Expression Prize 2025 (Ytringsfrihetsprisen) was presented to Gaitano and Mahmoud at the Authors’ Union annual meeting on 7 March 2026. Established in 1993 as a gift from the Ministry of Culture to mark the 100th anniversary of the Authors’ Union, the award is given to Norwegian or foreign authors who have distinguished themselves in promoting freedom of expression and tolerance in the broadest sense. The Norwegian Authors’ Union awards this prize annually to individuals who champion free speech. Both Gaitano and Mahmoud are acclaimed writers with numerous awards and recognitions to their names.
Gaitano is an award-winning writer based in Germany. In October 2025, she was selected by the Scottish-Sudanese author Leila Aboulela in cooperation with English PEN as the co-winner of the PEN Pinter Prize 2025 and named Writer of Courage 2025, awarded to authors who defend freedom of expression at personal risk. Born in Khartoum in 1979, Gaitano studied English and Arabic at the University of Khartoum and trained as a pharmacist. She moved to Juba after Sudan’s partition in 2011 but returned to Khartoum in 2015 after facing harassment for her criticism of the South Sudanese government. In 2022, she received a fellowship from the PEN International Writers-in-Exile programme and relocated to Germany. Gaitano writes in Arabic and has published two short story collections and the novels Edo’s Souls and Ireme. Her first novel, Edo’s Souls, translated by Sawad Hussain and published by Dedalus Books, was awarded a PEN Translates grantin 2020, becoming the first novel from South Sudan to be published in the UK.
Born in 1993 in Darfur, Emi “Emtithal” Mahmoud is an award-winning poet and activist based in the US. She and her family fled the war in Darfur, Sudan, in the early 1990s and moved to the US. Mahmoud later attended Yale University, where she studied anthropology and molecular biology, graduating in 2016. In 2015, she won the Individual World Poetry Slam championship. In 2018, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), traveling to refugee camps in Kenya, Greece, and Jordan to raise awareness of refugee crises. In October 2025, Mahmoud was named among the TIME100 Next: The World’s Most Influential Rising Stars by Time for her advocacy work. She was also recognised as one of “8 Trailblazing Refugee Women to Watch” by Girlboss, published on 8 March 2025 to mark International Women’s Day.
The Norwegian Authors’ Union organises authors of literary fiction. The Union was founded in 1893 and counts around 840 members. The object of the Norwegian Authors’ union is to protect and promote Norwegian Literature and defend the interests of Norwegian authors.
For more information, visit forfatterforeningen.no/english.
Cover image credit: (Mahmoud) Luiz Rampelotto / EuropaNewswir; (Gaitano) Wikimedia Commons / Roman Deckert.
.){kind=link}