Gaza playwright Ali Abu Yasin wins English PEN’s Writer of Courage award

Gaza playwright Ali Abu Yasin has received English PEN’s Writer of Courage 2026 award in London. The prize recognises his artistic resilience and defence of freedom of expression during the war.

After the war began in October 2023, Abu Yasin stopped writing plays for the stage and began documenting daily life under bombardment. His recent play, “50 Minutes”, was rehearsed by actors in a makeshift tent in a car park.

Writing through displacement

Abu Yasin said he had come close to death several times and that his home was bombed. He said his son was trapped under rubble, leaving him focused during the first two years of the war on protecting his family from danger and famine while documenting events.

After a break, the playwright wrote several screenplays that he hid and carried with him during repeated displacement. He also worked with actors now rehearsing in temporary tents amid the sound of gunfire.

Gaza’s theatre and cultural memory

Abu Yasin began writing plays and learning the oud as a teenager in Gaza’s al-Shati refugee camp. In 2004, he began working with the Said Al-Mishal Theatre in Gaza City; the building was destroyed in an Israeli bombing in 2018.

In 2008, he began writing the Gaza Monologues, a series about both joy and suffering in the enclave. A few weeks ago, he left Gaza through an artist-residency programme in France.

The English PEN award

Abu Yasin was nominated by British academic and cultural critic Jacqueline Rose, the 2026 PEN Pinter Prize laureate. English PEN says its Writer of Courage award honours an author who defends freedom of expression, often at significant risk to their safety or liberty.

Rose described Abu Yasin’s work as a call for justice and a record of the harshness of Palestinian life. English PEN said restrictions on movement for writers in Gaza directly affect their freedom of expression.

Abu Yasin is 62 and has six children and 16 grandchildren. All except his son Amjad, an actor in France, remain in Gaza.