First PEN/Pinter Prize to Be Awarded on October 14

English PEN, the British division of the worldwide writers’ organization, will establish a new literary award in honor of the late playwright Harold Pinter, according to published reports.

The PEN/Pinter Prize — which will first be given out on October 14 — will be given annually to a British writer or a writer living in Britain who best reflects, “an unflinching, unswerving determination to define the real truth of our lives and our societies,” and will come with a check for approximately $1,600.

The inaugural prize will be judged by Lisa Appignanesi, the president of English PEN; Lady Antonia Fraser, Mr. Pinter’s widow and a former English PEN president; the playwright Tom Stoppard, broadcaster Mark Lawson, and Nicholas Hytner, the artistic director of the National Theater.

Pinter, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, died on December 25, 2008. His many plays included The Homecoming, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, No Man’s Land, and Ashes to Ashes.