Vaclav Havel Center Announces Winner of 2025 ‘Disturbing the Peace’ Award

It is our honor to announce that Maksim Znak, Belarusian lawyer, activist, and writer, is the 10th recipient of the Vaclav Havel Center’s Disturbing the Peace Award to a Courageous Writer at Risk.
Currently serving a 10-year sentence in Belarus for his peaceful political activism, Znak has become an emblem of intellectual resistance. His collection of prison stories, Zekameron – inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron – bears witness to the power of literature behind bars. Composed of 100 vignettes, it captures the absurdity, irony, cruelty, and humanity within the Belarusian penal system, offering both a searing indictment of state repression and an affirmation of human dignity.

About the Award

The VHC’s annual Disturbing the Peace Award for a Courageous Writer at Risk honors writers who, like Václav Havel, demonstrate a passionate commitment to human rights and have faced persecution for their beliefs. The award celebrates exceptional courage in dissent and artistic integrity. It includes a $5,000 cash prize and brings international attention to those risking their freedom for the written word.

Nominations are submitted each year by human rights and literary organizations worldwide. A shortlist is then reviewed by the VHC’s Award Committee and evaluated by a distinguished international jury of writers, scholars, and former awardees.

Jury Comments

In announcing the award, Bill Shipsey — retired barrister, human rights activist, founder and director of Art for Human Rights, and member of the VHC Board of Directors — stated:

“As a fellow lawyer, even if in my case a retired one, I am delighted that Maxim Znak has been chosen unanimously by the Disturbing the Peace Award Jury as this year’s worthy recipient. Znak is serving a ten year sentence imposed in September 2021. His book “Zekameron” – ‘100 tales from behind prison and eyelashes’ ranks among the most moving and powerful prison literature in print. Inspired by the 14th century Decameron by Boccaccio and taking the form of 100 short stories, charting 100 days of prison in Belarus today.”

Salil Tripathi, former Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee and current board member of PEN International, added: 

“Maksim Znak not only has the unfailing grace and droll irony of the kind Vaclav Havel exemplified, but has shown persistence in seeking justice and freedom for his nation through peaceful means. He brings us inside the prison where he is an inmate, and tells us vivid stories of other prisoners, noting their dark humor, and humanizes them. The government may want to erase them, but Znak bears witness and remembers. He is a worthy winner for ‘disturbing the peace;’ may he be free soon.”

John Shattuck, juror and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, commented: 

“At a time when facts and words that convey the truth are twisted into lies, Maksim Znak through his writing and his courage restores the supremacy of truth and disturbs the peace by combining the legacy of Franz Kafka and Vaclav Havel. Maksim’s courageous persistence and ironic eloquence are beacons of hope in the struggle against tyranny.”

About Maksim Znak

Maksim Znak is a Belarusian constitutional lawyer, writer, and one of the most prominent members of the Belarusian opposition. He was arrested in September 2020 and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2021 on charges widely recognized as politically motivated. In prison, he wrote Zekameron, a remarkable cycle of 100 short stories chronicling daily life behind bars.

Reviewers have described Zekameron as a work in which “banality and brutality vie with the human ability to overcome oppression. The tone is laconic, ironic; the humor dry. The stories bear witness to resistance and self-assertion and the genuine warmth and appreciation of fellow prisoners.”

Award History

The Disturbing the Peace Award was established in 2016 to honor Václav Havel’s legacy as a playwright, dissident, and statesman. Past recipients include:

  • Arundhati Roy and Toomaj Salehi (2024)
  • Alaa Abd El-Fattah (2023)
  • Andrey Kurkov (2022)
  • Dmitri Strotsev (2021)
  • Angel Santiesteban Prats (2020)
  • Aslı Erdoğan (2019)
  • Liao Yiwu (2018)
  • Burhan Sönmez (2017)
  • Ma Thida (2016)

In 2025, the VHC received 20 nominations from organizations including PEN International, Amnesty International USA, and Index on Censorship.

The members of the 2025 Disturbing the Peace Award Jury were: Bill Shipsey, Barbora Bukovská, John Shattuck, and Salil Tripathi.

The members of the Award Committee were:

Bill Shipsey (Chair), Tamar Newberger, Jessica Ní Mhainín, Martin Palouš, Lise Stone, and Salil Tripathi.

For More Information

For further information contact Bill Shipsey or Jana Krupkova at info@havelcenter.org

Press release: DISTURBING THE PEACE Award 2025 Vaclav Havel Center