Haia Mohammed is a 23-year-old poet and former computer programming student from Khan Younis in Gaza, where she lived with her sisters and mother. She has a profound love of the sea, the sky, art, her country and her family, which flows out into her writing. She dreams of travel, of learning and prospering in life so she can support her people and their future. Her debut poetry pamphlet, The Age of Olive Trees, published in 2025 by Out-Spoken Press was shortlisted for the Book of the Year - Discover Award at the British Book Awards 2025 and was a Guardian ‘Best Recent Poetry’ title.

In 2025, Haia was awarded a full scholarship to study Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. She arrived in London in September 2025 to commence her studies, as one of the first group of scholars successfully evacuated from Gaza to the UK.

‘I carry on my shoulders the pain of a nation / and on my lips, the voice of defiance.’ Haia Mohammed’s poems are full of pain and defiance, grief and joy. They refuse to be reduced to one emotion, one reality. She writes, ‘I will not seek your pity.’ Because Gaza doesn’t need our pity. And when Gaza’s poets speak, we listen. Mohammed’s poetry documents, questions, and resists. Listen.  — Zeina Hashem Beck

You can also donate funds to her GoFundMe campaign here: https://gofund.me/caeb23c2