Pen Pinter Prize 2026: Jacqueline Rose

Name: Pen Pinter Prize 2026: Jacqueline Rose
Start: 2026-10-08T18:00:00+00:00
Location: British Library

British Library

96 Euston Road

Thu 8 Oct · 19:00 · £16

London

Get tickets · £16

Talk

About this event

This year’s PEN Pinter Prize is awarded to writer and critic Jacqueline Rose, who receives her award and delivers a lecture at this special event.The Prize is given annually in memory of Nobel Laureate playwright Harold Pinter to a writer 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’.The Prize will be shared with the 2026 PEN Pinter Writer of Courage, a writer who is active in defence of freedom of expression, often at great risk to their own safety and liberty. The co-winner, selected by Jacqueline Rose, will be announced at the event.Jacqueline Rose was chosen as the 2026 PEN Pinter Prize winner by this year’s judges: Chair of English PEN, Ruth Borthwick; author and poet Will Harris; and playwright and screenwriter Tanika Gupta.The PEN Pinter Prize is supported by the generosity of Faber and Ruth Allison.

literary criticism freedom of expression contemporary literature intellectual merit arts advocacy

More at British Library →

Pen Pinter Prize 2026: Jacqueline Rose poster

Follow the thread

From this venue’s worldWinter Reading RoomsJanuary is for ideas. These are the rooms where London still thinks in long form — independent bookshops, library reading rooms, and societies that predate the internet by centuries.From this venue’s worldLiterary LondonIndependent bookshops, reading rooms and literary houses where the city meets its writers.LineageBritish literary scholarshipTrace other London rooms working in this tradition.LineageKnowledge and research institutionTrace other London rooms working in this tradition.LineagePublic intellectual discourseTrace other London rooms working in this tradition.Adjacent this weekCulture ClubSadler's Wells Adjacent this weekNick Clegg: Can He Save the Internet?Chiswick Book Festival Adjacent this weekSpotkanie z autorem, Zbigniewem ParafianowiczemPOSK

A different kind of night

Not the same tradition as the lineage above — a genuinely different thread to pull, if you want one.

TalkPoetry: Hindi Diwas Celebration – Hindi Yuva Sangam – Season IVNehru Centre TalkPoetry Competition PrizegivingChiswick Book Festival TheatreBook ClubRoyal Court Theatre