Palestinian poet and writer Mosab Abu Toha won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for commentary on his essay in New Yorker. Shaped by life under the siege of Gaza, his writing document the daily horrors Palestinians face through personal, poetic voices.
The award is one of the finest honors of journalism, but Abu Toha said he cannot celebrate while his loved one remains trapped and starved. However, his victory marks a moment of strong recognition of the Palestinian narrative, Scoop Empire reported.
Abu Toha was born and raised in Beit Rahia, northern Gaza. His life has been characterized by repeated attacks on stripping, exile, and the loss of dozens of relatives and friends.
When he was only 16 years old, he survived the airstrike, but was not unharmed. Over the next few years, he turned to literature as a way to process trauma and maintain memory, becoming one of Gaza’s most prominent literary voices.
In 2017 he founded Gaza’s first English library, the Library, to help young people access global literature. It quickly became a cultural lifeline for many.
The library was destroyed in January 2024 by an Israeli airstrike. This is another chapter on the continuous erasure of culture and memory that Abu Toha vividly documented in his work.
In 2023, Abu Toha tried to escape from Gaza with his wife and three children. At a checkpoint in Israel, he was accused, separated from his family, beaten and interrogated.
He was released only after pressure from his friends and supporters abroad. “It was the most traumatic experience of my life,” he later said. He eventually reached the United States, but the safety and happiness of his family remains constantly a concern.
Published in New Yorker in 2024, Abu Toha’s award-winning essay blends memoirs and reports to portray the physical and emotional sacrifices of Gaza’s genocide.