THEn a time marked by conflicts, polarizations and news that flows too quickly to be truly understood, stopping to listen to a story is almost an act against the current. The Inge Feltrinelli Award was born precisely from this need: restore depth to words, give space to those who tell what often remains on the margins. Hosted at the Feltrinelli Foundation in Milan, the fourth edition of the award chose a theme that sounds like a declaration of intent: “Writing to (r)existNot just existing, therefore, but resisting through writing.
Inge Feltrinelli Prize 2026
Opening the evening was Giacomo Feltrinelli, who he reminded us that history is never completely written. An idea, perhaps, simple, but also necessary: in the most closed moments, in fact, something can still change. And often that change begins with the words. Like the ones with whom Shrouq Aila he wrote They killed habibi (ed. Wetlands Afterwords). Where “habibi” is “my love” in Arabic. Already an editorial sensation, it won the prize for the Fiction and Non-Fiction Books category.
They killed habibi by Gazan journalist Shrouq Aila
In They killed habibi Shrouq Aila talks about her life with her 3-year-old daughter after the death of her husband, Roshdi Sarraj, with whom she founded the Ain Media agency. Sixteen days after October 7, Roshdi was killed in an Israeli attack: he had stood in front of her and their eleven-month-old daughter, to protect them with his body.
From that moment on she found herself alone to raise a daughter in the midst of rubble, hunger, death. «I had thought that the greatest pain in life was losing both parents. Then I lost my soulmate, and I saw all the gardens of my heart go up in flames,” she says.
Gaza, a tragedy of people and not numbers
They killed habibi it is his attempt to retain what the war tries to destroy: bonds, memories, identity. Aila’s writing does not spectacularize pain. It passes through it. And in doing so he manages to restore something rare: the human complexity within a tragedy that is often told only in numbers. When his name was announced, the gesture of the hand on the heart, repeated several times, said more than any speech. In that distance, between Milan and Gaza, a space for authentic listening has opened up.
Words that change your gaze
Sabina Pignataro, however, received the honorable mention For Born off track, text that shifts the gaze to another type of resistance: that of identities. The book collects stories of transgender children and adolescentsbut above all it calls into question the language with which these lives are told. Why words are never neutral: they can hurt, exclude, or open up possibilities. Here writing becomes an instrument of precision, almost of care. It helps us name things better, and therefore understand them.
The stories that remain, even for the little ones
In the Kids section, the victory of Jeanne by Paolina Baruchello brings to light a forgotten historical figure: Jeanne Baret, botanist who defied the rules in the eighteenth century to participate in a scientific expedition. Telling this story today means offer a different image of the pastbut also to suggest that social, cultural and gender boundaries can be crossed. It is a literature that does not simplify, but accompanies. And it leaves traces.
The power of investigations: giving a name to injustices
The award for investigations, awarded to Linda Koponen and Juliette Pavy of the Neue Zürcher Zeitungremember another fundamental function of writing: documenting. Their work on Inuit women subjected to forced contraception practices, brings to light a story that has remained in the shadows for too long. It’s not an easy read, but there are stories that don’t ask for empathy, but recognition.
Young people and the memory that is built
Among the liveliest sections, that of school podcasts. The project that triumphedis a profound work rooted in the territory, created by a group of Calabrian students who experienced the echo of a tragedy up close. The podcast, titled Cutro, three years later. Voices from the sea, voices from the landwas curated by class IIIA of the Diodato Borrelli classical high school in Crotone. The students didn’t just tell the facts. They tried to rebuild meaning, to give voice to those who no longer have one. An exercise in memory, but also in responsibility.
The 2026 Inge Feltrinelli prize: stay, tell, resist
This edition of the Inge Feltrinelli Prize leaves a precise sensation: writing today is not a neutral gesture. It’s a choice. Choosing to talk about Gaza from the inside. Choosing to give space to identities that are still discussed. Choose to bring forgotten injustices to light. Choose to teach young people to look at the world carefully.
The evening ended with the announcement of a prestigious international collaboration with PEN InternationalPoets, Essayists, Novelists, the world organization that defends freedom of expression and persecuted writers. Together with the Feltrinelli Foundation, they will give life to Writing as resistance award, a special mention that will be awarded next November during BookCity Milano 2026.
