Batool Abu Akleen Takes Third Place in 2025 London Magazine Poetry Prize
APRIL 29, 2025 & MAY 1, 2025 — Palestinian poet-translator Batool Abu Akleen was one of nine writers shortlisted for the 2025 London Magazine Poetry Prize, for her “Gunpowder.” On May 1, organizers announced that her poem “Gunpowder” had won third place, calling her, “a new Gazan voice of enormous potential.”
The three winners who were chosen from the shortlist of nine all win cash prizes and will appear in a print issue of The London Magazine. This year’s entries were judged by Fiona Benson, Jason Allen-Paisant, and Mai Serhan. The magazine announced that, this year, all profits from the entry fees will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians. The prize raised more than £10,000.
Abu Akleen, who was recently named Modern Poetry in Translation’s “poet in residence,” won her first international poetry prize at the age of 15, when she took the Barjeel poetry prize, judged by the acclaimed Syrian poet Golan Haji, who noted, “Her senses are awake.”
The poet, who lives in Gaza, will see her first bilingual collection out this summer from Tenement Press, titled 48kg. She also has work in our GRIEF issue — both her own poetry and her translations.
Also read:
Interviews
Batool Abu Akleen: Poetry Is What Keeps Me Alive
Selected poems
“This Is How I Cook My Grief,” translated by Yasmin Zaher
“Blazing Sun” and “Milad Birth,” co-translated by Batool Abu Akleen and Cristina Viti
“After the Walls Collapsed,” translated by Graham Liddell
“I did not steal the cloud” (Winner of the Barjeel Poetry Prize)
And in her translation
A Resonant Death: Poems & Reflections by Fatima Hassouna, translated by Batool Abu Akleen