Pjetër Filip Arbnori (18 January 1936 – 8 July 2006) was an Albanian politician and dissident of the communist regime in Albania.

Once having completed his military service, young Arbnori roamed the mountains in search of a living, and started to labour in the fields as a farm hand.

This verdict was subsequently commuted to 25 years' imprisonment, because the authorities hoped that Arbnori would eventually lead them to catching other ringleaders.

Still unsubdued, Arbnori soon took part in the grassroots movement that was defying the government, participating, less than five months after his release, in the anti-communist demonstration in Shkodër that overturned the statue of Stalin.

Thus, when the state-owned television station refused to broadcast the statements and initiatives of the opposition party, he went on a hunger strike.

It was here that the fame of "the Mandela of the Balkans" claimed the attention of many governments of the Western world, whose support forced the majority coalition in Parliament to review its stance and approve a formal guarantee of the independence of the press from state interference.

The award is given annually to an Albanian or international author in recognition of their ongoing contribution to national and world literature,[5] essentially equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize in the United States.