The much-anticipated Palestine Book Awards kicked off yesterday evening with a vibrant pre-launch event celebrating the authors and stories that continue to elevate Palestinian history, culture and resistance.
Held at the P21 Gallery in London, the evening drew a full house to engage with the shortlisted authors for the 2025 awards. Hosted by journalist and author Victoria Brittain, the event provided an opportunity to hear directly from the voices behind some of the most powerful recent contributions to Palestinian literature, memoir, history and political analysis.
Journalist and author Victoria Brittain [Middle East Monitor]The line-up of panellists reflected the diversity and depth of the shortlist, narrowed down from a total of 80 submissions: Azza El Hassan, Dr Dina Matar, Hazem Jamjoum, Peter Shambrook, Matthew Teller, Nada Tarbush (on behalf of the late Mohammad Tarbush), Omar El Akkad, Pankaj Mishra, Prof Tahrir Hamdi, Sarah Aziza and Yousef Aljamal. Across genres and generations, each author explored themes central to Palestine.
The event began with a moment of silence for the 9,250 Palestinian prisoners, including 450 children and 80 women, as well as 3,389 who are currently being held in administrative detention, without cause or without charge.
