AMIR TIBON has been announced as the winner of this year’s Wingate Literary Prize for The Gates of Gaza (Scribe, 2025)
The Gates of Gaza is the gripping, true story of how leading Israeli journalist Amir Tibon, along with his wife and their two young, were in a Kibbutz that was attacked on October 7th 2023 before being rescued by Tibon’s father. It’s an incredible tale of survival which also reveals Israeli failures that enabled Hamas to carry out its brutal attack.
Amir Tibon is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, and has previously served as the paper’s correspondent in Washington D.C., and as a senior editor for its English edition. He is author of The Last Palestinian: The Rise and Reign of Mahmoud Abbas (co-authored with Grant Rumley), the first-ever biography of the leader of the Palestinian Authority. He, his wife, and their two young daughters were evacuated from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz after the October 7 attack, and are currently living in temporary housing in north-central Israel.
The judges said:
We were thrilled with our shortlist this year, but in the end one book was our unanimous choice.
‘Amir Tibon’s The Gates of Gaza is a remarkable accomplishment. To write about the devastating events in Israel and Palestine with such humanity, such knowledge of history and such balance would be extraordinary under any circumstances; given the author’s situation — he was himself caught up in the attack of October 7 — it is even more stunning. Tibon’s style is lucid and compelling, and one could not hope for a better guide to these challenging and painful times.’
Amir Tibon said:
‘It is a great honour to receive the Wingate Prize and to join the long and distinguished list of writers who have won this important literary award. The mission of the Wingate Prize has never been more vital, as we confront rising antisemitism around the world, and I am proud that the judging panel chose The Gates of Gaza at this crucial moment. Many thanks to my U.K. publisher, Scribe, for taking a chance on this book and making this achievement possible.’
Amir Tibon will be appearing with the Wingate judges at an event at Kings Place as part of Jewish Book Week at 2pm on Sunday 8 March, chaired by Emily Kasriel, author and Trustee of the Wingate Foundation.
Now in its 49th year, the annual prize, worth £4,000 and run in association with the Jewish Literary Foundation, is awarded to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to convey the idea of Jewishness to the general reader. The Wingate Prize is the only UK literary prize of its kind and attractsnominations from all over the globe. Previous winners include Amos Oz, Zadie Smith, Oliver Sacks, David Grossman and, most recently, Manya Wilkinson.
This year’s judging panel was comprised of the chair, Erica Wagner, Xiaolu Guo, Kate Weinberg This year’s judging panel was comprised of the chair, Erica Wagner, Xiaolu Guo, Kate Weinberg and Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet. The Wingate Prize and the Jewish Literary Foundation are pleased to be working in partnership again this year, supported by JW3.
Press information: Anna Pallai anna@ampliterary.co.uk / 07971 496 227
NOTES TO EDITORS
Xiaolu Guo‘s novels include A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize). Her memoir Once Upon A Time In The East won the National Book Critics Circle Award 2017 and was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her nonfiction Radical was published by Vintage 2023, followed by My Battle of Hastings and she was named as a Granta’s Best of Young British Novelist in 2013.
Erica Wagner’s latest book is Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort Of Love Story. She was the literary editor of the London Times for seventeen years and is a consulting editor on the comment pages of The Observer, contributing writer for the New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper’s Bazaar. She is the author of Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge, winner of the Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writer’s Award; her other books nclude Ariel’s Gift and Gravity.. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.
Kate Weinberg‘s most recent novel There’s Nothing Wrong With Her was inspired by her battle with Long Covid during the pandemic. Her debut, The Truants, was published in 2020 and was a Book of the Year in The New York Times, The Observer, The Ipaper, The Irish Times and USA Today. After working as an English teacher in Rome, Kate took an MA in Creative Writing at UEA before returning to London to become a fiction and non-fiction editor and Creative Writing teacher.
Adam Zagoria-Moffet is the rabbi of St. Albans Masorti Synagogue (SAMS) and the Director of Strategy for Masorti Judaism in the UK. He was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary where he also received an MA in Jewish Thought. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Minnesota, New York, and Israel before moving to the UK. His interests are primarily in mysticism ethics, and Sephardic Judaism and culture. He also runs Izzun Books, a small independent publisher of unusual Jewish titles.
The Harold Hyam Wingate Charitable Foundation is a private grant-giving institution, established over forty years ago.
he Jewish Literary Foundation works to spread awareness, recognition and enjoyment of the best in ideas and great Jewish writing to as wide an audience as possible, including the annual Jewish Book Week festival, an emerging writers’ programme, a schools’ programme, a translation
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Foundation, is awarded to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to convey the idea of Jewishness to
the general reader. The Wingate Prize is the only UK literary prize of its kind and attractsnominations from all over the globe. Previous winners include Amos Oz, Zadie Smith, Oliver
Sacks, David Grossman and, most recently, Manya Wilkinson.
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