Author Peter Beinart has been awarded a PEN prize for his nonfiction work on Gaza and Jewish identity [Getty]
US author Peter Beinart has been awarded the 2026 PEN America Literary Award for nonfiction for his latest book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning.
In a statement, the judges said the book “offers a model for writing a new story when inherited narratives no longer hold.”
Beinart, who is also a professor at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York, has been an outspoken Jewish critic of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and has long advocated for Palestinian rights.
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza explores questions of Jewish identity, ethics and responsibility in the context of Gaza’s devastation.
“When I enter a synagogue, I am no longer sure who will extend their hand and who will look away,” Beinart writes in the ‘Note To My Former Friend’ that opens the book.
He continues, “How does someone like me, who still considers himself a Jewish loyalist, end up being cursed on the street by people who believe Jewish loyalty requires my excommunication?”
Beinart’s recognition by PEN follows a pro-Palestine boycott of the free speech organisation in 2024, led by Writers Against the War in Gaza, which resulted in the cancellation of that year’s ceremony and several prizes.
Supporters of the boycott, including Esther Allen, co-founder of the PEN World Voices Festival, said the action was in protest at what they described as the organisation’s lack of support for Palestinian writers in Gaza.
The boycott was formally lifted on 31 December last year.
