Gaza Writer Wins Pinter Prize for Courage in Writing

Gaza playwright Ali Abu Yasin has won the prestigious English Pinter Prize for Courage 2026.

According to Ambassador Arjan, quoted by Al Jazeera, Ali Abu Yassin was honored for his artistic resilience. He, who endured displacement and personal losses during the last 3 years under the bombardment of the Zionist regime, was honored by receiving the Pinter pen award, which is given to writers who live bravely with their pen.

Ali Abu Yassin, a 62-year-old playwright from Gaza, suffered the horrors of genocide by the Israeli regime, but despite the bombs falling around him, he found solace in creating art and continued to write even as the Zionist regime's genocide destroyed the world around him.

This author received his award from "Pen England" literary group as "Courageous Writer 2026". After receiving the award, he said: This award is great not only for me, but also for Gaza, Palestine and all the Palestinian people.

He started writing plays and mastering playing the oud as a teenager in the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza, one of the largest camps in the Gaza Strip, which has been the target of recent attacks.

He told Al Jazeera: I was born this way, I wanted to express myself through art since I was a child.

After the war began in October 2023, Abu Yassin stopped writing plays and instead wrote about life under Israeli bombardment.

Abu Yassin said that in the first two years, he wrote about the situation in Gaza; From Palestinians fleeing to save their lives from bombings...

He added: There was no theater; It was impossible to have a theater because Gaza was being destroyed.

Since 2023, Israel has killed more than 74,000 people in Gaza, and most of the survivors have been displaced several times.

However, Abu Yassin now works with actors who rehearse their dialogues in makeshift tents as gunshots ring out.

Abu Yassin told Al Jazeera: I was close to death four or five times. I witnessed the death of people around me. We lived by chance and those who died also died by chance.

He added: My son was trapped under the rubble. My house was bombed. So, during those two years, I was just trying to provide some security for my family. Protect them from famine. And to document what was happening so the world could hear me before I died.

After a hiatus, he wrote several plays that he hid and carried with him during his exile.

This playwright started working with Saeed Al-Mashal Theater in 2004; A center for Palestinian culture in Gaza City that was razed to the ground by Israeli bombing in 2018. At that time, prominent theater directors and playwrights in a letter to the Guardian newspaper called this attack "the destruction of this symbol of Palestinian culture and identity".

In 2008, Abu Yassin began writing Gaza Monologues, a collection depicting life in Gaza, both moments of joy and moments of pain.

The spokesperson of the British Pen Association told Al Jazeera: For years, writers living in Gaza have the most limited freedom of movement in the world, and we understand this issue and its direct impact on their freedom of expression.

Abu Yassin's recent show titled "50 Minutes", which was recently shown in Gaza, tells the story of genocide and mourning. The actors rehearsed in a makeshift tent in a parking lot, many of them with no previous theater experience.

Abu Yasin has 6 children and 16 grandchildren. All of them live in Gaza except for his son, Amjad Abu Yassin, who is an actor in France.

He said: In Gaza, we have simple dreams. We want to live in peace and freedom. We want the skies and seas to be open. We just want a little freedom.

Abu Yassin was chosen as the Pinter Pen Courage winner by British academic and cultural critic Jacqueline Rose, who this summer was named the 2026 Pinter Pen Prize winner. The Pinter Pen Award is given annually in memory of Harold Pinter.

According to the British Pen Association, the Courageous Writer Award is given to a writer who is active in defending freedom of expression, often at great risk to their safety and freedom. This winner will jointly receive the Pinter pen prize with the winner.

This organization is the British branch of the International Pen Association; A global association of writers dedicated to "promoting freedom of expression and literary patronage around the world."

The American Pen Association has faced serious criticism in recent years because it does not support Palestinian writers. This led to a boycott by the American Pen Association, which led to the resignation of its president in 2025.

The British Pen Association (PEN), which operates independently of the American group, joined the International Pen Association in calling for an arms embargo on Israel and condemning the killing of Palestinian writers.

In a press release, Jacqueline Rose, winner of the Pinter Pen Award, described the works of her chosen author as "a call for justice, a cry of anger, and a spiritual search" and added: "He has been a constant chronicler of violence and cruelty to Palestinians and a mentor to young people who are trying to extract meaning from the rubble of their lives."

Rose rose to fame with his 2005 book, The Zion Problem, which is a psychoanalysis of Zionism.