Palestinian poet and essayist Mosab Abu Toha has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, earning global recognition for his poignant reflections on the devastation in Gaza.

The Pulitzer board praised Abu Toha’s essays published in The New Yorker, noting how they “blend deep reporting with memoir” to portray the personal and collective trauma of Palestinians living under siege.

“I have just won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary,” Abu Toha posted on social media. “Let it bring hope. Let it be a tale”—a phrase echoing the last poem of fellow Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in December 2023.

Abu Toha was detained by Israeli forces in Gaza last year and later released to Egypt. He now resides in the United States, where right-wing groups have recently called for his deportation amid political backlash targeting pro-Palestinian voices.

In one of his acclaimed essays, Abu Toha wrote, “In Gaza, every destroyed house becomes a kind of album, filled not with photos but with real people, the dead pressed between its pages.” He described the deep personal loss he has endured, including the disappearance of people and places that once anchored his memory.

Amid the ongoing war, Abu Toha canceled public appearances at several U.S. universities, citing safety concerns. Speaking to Al Jazeera in December, he said it was emotionally crushing to be safe in the U.S. while his family remained in danger in Gaza, a region he said was being devastated by U.S.-funded violence.

In other Pulitzer news, The New York Times won four awards, including for international reporting on Sudan. The Washington Post and Reuters were also among this year’s recipients, recognized for breaking news and investigative work, respectively.

Source: BBC

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