has won this year’s Pen Pinter Prize, which celebrates champions of free speech. The Canadian novelist and poet is well known for her environmental campaigning. Judges praised Atwood’s political activism, and described her as an “exemplary public intellectual”. Atwood will formally receive the award at the British Library on 13 October, where she will also deliver an address. Atwood said she was “humbled” to be the recipient of this year’s prize.

Did You Know?

• The prize was established in 2009 in memory of playwright and Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, who had died the previous year.
• It is given annually to a writer who shows a “fierce intellectual determination… to define the real truth of our lives and our societies”.
• The winner also helps to decide, together with the judging panel, the winner of the International Writer of Courage prize – which recognises a non-British writer who has faced persecution.
• Atwood will announce her international co-winner when she receives her own award at the October ceremony.
• English PEN is the founding branch of the international writers’ association PEN International, which promotes freedom of expression and often speaks on behalf of writers who are persecuted for their views. Previous winners of the PEN Pinter Prize include novelist Salman Rushdie and playwright Tom Stoppard.