The PEN Pinter Prize was established in 2009 in memory of Nobel-Laureate playwright Harold Pinter. 

The PEN Pinter Prize is awarded annually to a writer resident in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth or former Commonwealth who, in the words of Harold Pinter’s Nobel speech, casts an ‘unflinching, unswerving’ gaze upon the world, and shows a ‘fierce intellectual determination … to define the real truth of our lives and our societies’.

The winner must the author of a significant body of plays, poetry, essays, or fiction of outstanding literary merit, written in English.

The prize is shared with a writer of courage selected by English PEN’s Writers at Risk Committee in association with the winner. This half of the prize is awarded to someone who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs.