Salman Rushdie has been awarded the 2014 PEN/Pinter Prize, given annually to a British writer or writer in resident in Britain. The award, established in 2009 by English PEN in memory of Nobel-Laureate playwright Harold Pinter, recognizes an individual of "outstanding literary merit," who, in Pinter's words, 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."
”It’s very moving to receive an award named after my friend Harold Pinter, whose literary genius was matched by his passion for social justice, and to follow in the distinguished footsteps of the previous recipients, Tony Harrison, Hanif Kureishi, David Hare, Carol Ann Duffy and Tom Stoppard," said Rushdie.
The award will be presented at a public event at the British Library on October 9, at which Rushdie will deliver an address.
