Mohammed al-Zaqzouq

Mohammed al-Zaqzouq is a Palestinian writer, researcher, and literary editor, born in Khan Younis in 1990. In recent years, he has emerged as one of the most important new voices coming out of Gaza. He studied Arabic language and literature at Al-Aqsa University, and works at the Tamer Institute for Community Education as a coordinator of library and youth group programmes, while maintaining an active presence in cultural circles within the Gaza Strip. He received the Ali al-Khalili Poetry Prize in 2018 for his poetry collection The Soothsayers Betrayed Me. In the following years, his presence expanded beyond Palestine through the publication of his texts and essays in prestigious international platforms such as The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, The Dial, and The Avery Review. This has made him one of the voices that has moved beyond the limits of “writing from within” toward a global literary discourse that presents the Palestinian experience from its original place, without embellishment or pretence. In 2025, he co-edited Letters from Gaza, published by Penguin Random House, a book that brought together testimonies and writings from the heart of the war. He has also written for children, offering works such as My Heart Resembles the Moon and The Queue of the Latecomers.