Palestinian theatre-maker Ali Abu Yassin, 62, has been named the 2026 Writer of Courage, sharing the Pinter Prize with British writer Jacqueline Rose, who announced his selection on Thursday evening, 8 October, during a speech at the British Library in London. Abu Yassin dedicated the honour to the people of Gaza and to “every writer who defends freedom and truth”.
Named Writer of Courage and shares the Pinter Prize
Abu Yassin responded to news of his award by saying that he had never written in pursuit of a prize, but had written out of his belief that “death has no voice, but our voices do not die”. English PEN awards the title of Writer of Courage each year to a writer who works to defend freedom of expression, often at a cost to their safety, and who shares the honour with the winner of the Pinter Prize.
The Pinter Prize was launched in 2009 in memory of British playwright Harold Pinter. Rose described the Gazan theatre-maker as “the enduring chronicler of the harshness and brutality of Palestinian existence”, saying that his work represented “a call for justice, a cry of anger and a spiritual quest”. Abu Yassin grew up in Shati refugee camp in Gaza City and began writing plays and learning to play the oud during his teenage years.
Abu Yassin’s journey from Gaza to the stage
In an interview in 2024, he said his theatre career began in 1990, before he won the Best Actor award at a festival in Tunisia in 2004 for his performance as “Abu Arab”. That year, he began working with the Said al-Mashal Theatre in Gaza City, which was destroyed by Israeli air strikes in 2018.
Ali Abu Yassin, a Palestinian theatre-maker, has worked with Al-Ashtar Theatre since 2008, developing and directing Gaza Monologues. He faced censorship, missed a film premiere, and later directed 50 Minutes in Gaza, staged on 19 July after rehearsals in tents.
Palestinian theatre-maker
- Since 2008
Working with Al-Ashtar Theatre
Since 2008, he has worked with Al-Ashtar Theatre, where he developed and directed the first version of Gaza Monologues. English PEN says Abu Yassin has faced censorship since the 1990s, with some of his plays banned or subject to restrictions. In 2019, travel restrictions prevented him from attending the premiere of the documentary film Gaza at the Sundance Film Festival, despite being one of its subjects.
- 19 July
Premiere of a new play
Abu Yassin later returned to the stage with the play 50 Minutes in Gaza, which he directed. The project began as a writing workshop in April 2026, while the actors first rehearsed inside tents before moving to a damaged café and making the set from wood and tent fabric. The play premiered in Gaza City on 19 July before touring across the Gaza Strip.
Theatre and documentation during war and displacement
Nine months after the war began, Abu Yassin spoke in July 2024 about the place of theatre in his life, describing it as “joy, awareness, culture, refinement, humanity, beauty and construction”. But he said he could no longer find a place for theatre at that time, adding: “Now I write only because I believe it is necessary to document creatively what is happening.”
In the same interview, he said that “our catastrophe now is dozens of times greater than what happened in 1948”, adding that those who died had died, “but the biggest problem is with those who remain”. Two years later, he explained that he had stopped writing plays during that period and turned to documenting the war, writing scripts in hiding while displaced. “There was no theatre; it was impossible for there to be theatre because Gaza was being destroyed,” he said.
Palestinian productions and a testimony to the cost of war
Abu Yassin also contributed a play to the programme Tomorrow Will Be a Palestinian Day, which featured nine plays presented by Theatre 503 in London last June. Abu Yassin says he escaped death four or five times, that his son was trapped under the rubble, and that his home was bombed. He described what he experienced by saying: “We lived by chance, and those who died died by chance.”
The Palestinian theatre-maker left Gaza a few weeks before the award was announced for an artistic residency in France, and his trip coincided with the ceremony, allowing him to attend it in London. Abu Yassin has six children and 16 grandchildren, all of whom remain in Gaza except for one of his sons, an actor who lives in France. Despite leaving the Strip, Abu Yassin said: “In truth, I have not left the war. The war lives inside me, and Gaza lives inside me.”
He described the prize as “great”, stressing that it was not for him alone but “for Gaza, Palestine and the entire Palestinian people”. A spokesperson for English PEN said that writers in Gaza are “among the least free to move in the world”. Abu Yassin summed up his demand by saying: “In Gaza, we have simple dreams... we only want some freedom.”
In his 2024 interview, Abu Yassin had declined to send a message to creative artists, saying that anyone who carries the description of a creative artist “is fully aware of their role”. This time, however, he addressed Gaza’s artists, whom he described as “my extended family”, saying: “Remain true to your pens, and true to the great stage... Keep theatre alive. Relief is coming. Hold on to hope.”
