‘War lives in me’: Gaza playwright Ali Abu Yasin wins English PEN award

London, United Kingdom – Ali Abu Yassin, a playwright from Gaza who continued writing even as Israel’s genocidal campaign devastated the world around him, has won a prestigious award in London.“This prize is great not only for me, but for Gaza, Palestine, and all the Palestinian people,” Ali Abu Yasin, who was named on Thursday as “Writer of Courage 2026” by the literary group English PEN, told Al Jazeera.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4‘Not backing down’: The Britons pushed towards Palestine by Gaza genocidelist 2 of 4How genocide in Gaza followed Bosnia’s painful patternlist 3 of 4Gaza child’s autoimmune condition triggered amid Israel’s warlist 4 of 4Global protests mark October 7 attack with calls for Gaza ceasefireend of listThe 62-year-old began writing plays and mastering the oud as a teenager in al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza, one of the largest in the Strip and a target of recent attacks.“It’s how I was born, I’ve wanted to express myself using art since my childhood,” he told Al Jazeera.After the war began in October, 2023, Abu Yasin stopped writing plays and instead wrote about life under Israeli bombardment.Abu Yasin said for the first two years, he wrote a...