PEN Pinter Prize

October 14th 2009 saw the first awarding of the PEN/Pinter Prize to the 'unmistakable and passionate poet' Tony Harrison. In a ceremony at the British Library, which holds the late Harold Pinter's archives, Harrison delivered his acceptance lecture entitled The Inky Digit of Defiance - a digit which he said symbolised his commitment 'to a vote in favour of the dumb or the silenced being given a voice, of totally free speech'.

Following the economium delivered by Nicholas Hytner, Artistic Director of the National Theatre, Lady Antonia Fraser, Harold Pinter's widow, spoke movingly about her husband's commitment to English PEN and his love of prizes, which she said he described as 'salutations to literature'. She said there could be a no more fitting first recipient of this prize in her husband's memory, before presenting Tony Harrison with a framed cartoon featuring Harold Pinter, drawn by Steve Bell on the occasion of Pinter winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

In accepting the award, Harrison spoke of the the kinship he felt with Harold Pinter, expressing his admiration for the 'laser-focused rage' which he found in Pinter's anti-war poems. He went on to speak about the strong political (especially republican) feeling which has fired all of his writing, asserting that, 'a poet's rage has as much place in his poetry as the "emotion recollected in tranquility".'

The PEN/Pinter prize will be shared annually between a British writer who, in the words of Pinter's Nobel speech, casts an 'unflinching, unswerving' gaze upon the world and an international winner - an imprisoned writer of courage. Following his prize lecture, copies of which have been produced in a bound limited edition by Faber and Faber, Harrison announced the winner of this second category, Maung Thura. Known more widely as Zargana, Maung Thura is a hugely popular Burmese poet, comedian, film actor and director, as well as a fierce critic of the military government. In November 2008 Zargana was sentenced to 59 years imprisonment, convicted of 'public order offences' and for leading a private relief effort to deliver aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis. Following appeals his term was reduced by 'up to 24 years'. He has therefore to serve the remaining 35 years in prison. Zargana has in the past insisted that even if he is silenced, under-the-table humour will persist in Burma's taxicabs, teashops and dining rooms: "Burmese people love to laugh. But if I can't speak, jokes will still spread. The people will make them up themselves."

Carole Seymour-Jones, chair of English PEN's Writers in Prison committee, collected the prize on Zargana's behalf, paying tribute to the courage of the 'wise fool of Burma' and citing Harold Pinter's active commitment to the Writers in Prison committee, exemplified by his visit to Turkey on behalf of the WiPC with Harold Miller in 1985, where they were escorted by Orhan Pamuk.

English PEN's president, Lisa Appignanesi closed the ceremony, applauding the winners and noting that the PEN/Pinter Prize would continue to celebrate the life and work of Harold Pinter, as well as recognising those writers today who, like Pinter, remained actively engaged in defending the value of the whole enterprise of literature.

The PEN/Pinter Prize was judged by the President of English PEN, Lisa Appignanesi, Pinter's widow and former President of English PEN, Antonia Fraser, playwright Tom Stoppard, broadcaster Mark Lawson and the Artistic Director of the National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner.

You can now read an excerpt from Tony Harrison's Prize Lecture online on the Guardian website.

You can also view photos from this event on Flickr