Rabah wins 2026 Calibre Essay Prize

The Australian Book Review (ABR) has announced Sahar Rabah as the 2026 winner of the $10,000 Calibre Essay Prize for her essay “Between Reality and Dreams”.

“Between Reality and Dreams” was chosen from 564 entries from 29 countries, and a shortlist of 10. Rabah is the first Palestinian to win the prize.

Judges André Dao, Diane Stubbings and Kate Fullagar said, “‘Between Reality and Dreams’ takes the reader behind what we have seen on our screens to the ‘small, undeclared wars that were not shown on television’ … This is an extraordinary act of bearing witness, written in prose that is at turns direct and poetic. The suppleness of the writing allows the author to bring a striking moral clarity while also dwelling in psychic complexity.”

Born and raised in Gaza, Rabah writes poetry, essays and short fiction in Arabic and English. Her poems have appeared in Lit Hub, The Massachusetts Review, World Literature Today, The Markaz Review and Raseef22, and she is currently enrolled in an MPhil in the Creative Writing program at Trinity College in Dublin.

Thanking the judges, Rabah said she was “deeply grateful and delighted” to win the prize. “Although it is painful, I hope that this essay resonates with readers and leaves a positive impact, and that this recognition motivates me to continue writing.”

The 2026 runner-up is “Tumbleweed: How the West was Lost” by Victorian writer Maria Takolander, with third prize going to South Australia–based writer Elise Westin for “The Architecture of Erasure”.

More information about the prize is available on the ABR website.

Category: Awards Local news