Gaza Playwright Ali Abu Yasin and the 2026 Writer of Courage Award

Gaza playwright Ali Abu Yasin has been named English PEN's Writer of Courage for 2026. The award was reported on 8 October 2026. Yasin is 62 and from al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza. Al Jazeera

He was nominated by Jacqueline Rose, winner of the 2026 PEN Pinter Prize. That pairing follows the established practice. Each year, the Pinter laureate selects the Courage recipient.

Yasin is an actor and director of Ashtar Theatre. PEN After the war began in October 2023, he stopped writing plays and wrote about life under Israeli bombardment. He said his son was trapped under rubble and his house was bombed. During displacement, he wrote screenplays that he hid and carried with him.

His recent play '50 Minutes' was shown in Gaza after actors rehearsed in a makeshift tent in a car park. He has since left Gaza with the support of an artist residency programme in France, a scheme that offers a safe place to live and work for a period.

English PEN operates PENWrites, an international letter-writing campaign for writers who are persecuted, harassed and imprisoned for exercising freedom of expression. The organisation describes itself as one of the world's oldest human rights organisations. English PEN

The broader context here is what literary prizes can and cannot do in wartime. They do not protect buildings or infrastructure. Like a spotlight, they confer visibility, a lasting record, and at times mobility. For a writer who documented bombardment and displacement while carrying his manuscripts, this recognition brings testimony written under siege to publishers and institutions outside Gaza.

Looking at what this means for cultural life in Gaza, the production details are telling. Rehearsal in a car park tent and performance under wartime conditions show theatre adapted to loss of venue, scattered actors and civilian risk. Yasin moved from plays to wartime writing, then back to staged work with '50 Minutes.' Writing persisted. The form changed.

In my view, the residency element deserves close attention. Exit through cultural programmes has become one of the few ways for Gaza artists to keep working at length. That route raises difficult questions. Who gains access. Which institutions mediate departure. What happens to companies like Ashtar when directors and actors are displaced. The award answers none of those questions. It sharpens them by attaching a name and a body of work to debates over free expression and civilian culture.