Hanif Kureishi awarded Pinter literary prize

LONDON - Renowned novelist Hanif Qureshi has bagged a literary prize set up in honour of playwright Harold Pinter.

The ‘Buddha of Suburbia’ author won the Pen/Pinter prize as he courageously speaks the truth about life in our multicultural world and will receive a cash reward of 1000 pounds during a felicitation ceremony at British Library.

“Hanif Kureishi courageously and irreverently speaks the truth about life in our multicultural world, beyond any platitudes of political correctness. Harold Pinter would have been proud that Hanif was chosen for the prize in his name and that of Pen,” the BBC quoted Antonia Fraser, Harold Pinter’s widow as saying.

The Pen/Pinter prize is given to a British writer who, in the words of Pinter’s Nobel Prize winning speech, casts an unflinching, unswerving gaze upon the world.

On the other hand, Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho will receive the international writer of courage prize, which is awarded to writers for their courageous writings. (ANI)