This year, the general meeting of PEN Latvia decided to award the PEN Latvia Award to linguist, guest lecturer at Ventspils University of Applied Sciences, translation industry expert, interpreter, and translator Aiga Veckalne. She received the award for compiling and publishing the Inclusive Language Guidelines last year, as well as for her long-standing work promoting public understanding of the importance of inclusive language.

The Inclusive Language Guidelines, which last year received unfounded and unprofessional criticism and attacks from the State Language Centre, are a valuable resource that compiles possible terms recommended for use when speaking respectfully about socially vulnerable groups. Until now, such a resource has been largely absent from the Latvian language and cultural space. The PEN Latvia Award recognizes Aiga Veckalne’s contribution to the development of inclusive language and the promotion of a more respectful and accessible linguistic environment. Language is perceived as a living organism that changes, influences, and interacts with people. Language helps us understand and even construct experience. Therefore, efforts to develop a language that is sensitive and aligned with human experience are both welcome and necessary, PEN Latvia comments on their choice.

PEN Latvia also appreciates Aiga Veckalne’s work in explaining the necessity of inclusive language to a wider audience. The linguist regularly conducts seminars and workshops, as well as gives lectures on the Latvian language, speech, electronic correspondence etiquette, simple, easy, and inclusive language. Over the last ten years, she has regularly appeared in various media as an expert, by speaking about the use of the Latvian language. She creates and hosts the podcast Pieturzīmes and promotes a form of language that makes all individuals feel more included, comfortable, and represented.

The PEN Latvia Award every year is created by a well-known Latvian artist. This year, the award was designed by Krista Vindberga (Dzudzilo). Describing her work, the artist stated: “The hand protects a fragile, smooth form where vulnerability and potential merge. It levitates in the palm – as if only the power of warmth and attention holds it. Not too tightly, not too loosely, because one who understands the value of fragility can protect it. The egg invites reflection on a voice that is still forming, on care, courage, and responsibility for what is still developing. It does not demand strength, but understanding and empathy. The hand that holds it is the same hand that allows a word to be born. It is the hand of responsibility that performs the work of empathy.”

The PEN Latvia Award has been presented since 2019 for significant achievements in promoting freedom of speech, countering censorship, and defending the rights of socially marginalized groups. Previous recipients include Lolita Tomsone, director of the Žanis Lipke Memorial and publicist; the Baltic Centre for Investigative Journalism Re:Baltica; writer and ornithologist Viesturs Ķerus; film director Alise Zariņa; Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Sanita Osipova; the association Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem (I Want to Help Refugees); and human rights activist Ieva Raubiško.

PEN is an international organization of writers, publicists, and editors that promotes the spread of literature and advocates for freedom of speech and other expression.