Pjetër Arbnori was born in Durrës on January 18, 1935. He was politically persecuted during the communist regime, writer, deputy and Speaker of the Assembly of Albania. He was born into a Shkodra family. His father was a gendarmerie officer, he participated in the resistance against the Italian occupation on April 7 in Durrës, directed by Abaz Kupi. Pjetr Arbnori studied at the Korça School, first grade. He attended the third grade of elementary school at the Saverian College and then finished high school at the “29 November” gymnasium. In the years 1949-1950, he was organized with his friends and peers in groups of three that printed and distributed leaflets, collected and transported the Committee’s leaflets “Free Albania” that were thrown from planes. After he was fired, he found a place in an eight-year school in Dukagjin. In 1957 he was given permission to continue the State University of Tirana. By decision of the Party Committee in Durrës, he was appointed a literature teacher at the Agricultural High School in Golem, at the Pjetër Toma school. In 1962, he was arrested and accused of wanting to form a social-democratic party, for which he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. After eighteen years in prison they re-sentenced him for another 10 years. 

He wrote a large part of his literary work in the most difficult conditions in prison. In August 1989, Pjeter Arbnori was released from prison. Arbnori spent 28 years in Burrel prison. He was arrested at the age of 26 and released when he was 54.

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. With the first free ballot, Arbnori was elected to Parliament, and was later re-elected three more times. He was elected twice to the position of Chairman of the Parliament of Albania from April 6, 1992 to July 24, 1997 and is also listed among the acting Presidents of Albania, with reference to April 1992.

In 1997, his party lost the elections to the Socialist Party of Albania led by Fatos Nano. From the benches of the opposition, it soon became clear to Arbnori that there was a risk that the censorship that was customary under the old regime might be reinstated. 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. This became known as “the Arbnori Amendment”.

Arbnori died in Italy, in 2006. On May 25, 2007, International Center of Culture established the “Pjetër Arbnori Prize” for Literature. The award is given annually to an Albanian or international author in recognition of their ongoing contribution to national and world literature, essentially equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize in the United States.

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