Jhalak Prize

The Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour is an annual literary prize awarded to British or British-resident BAME writers. £1,000 is awarded to the sole winner.

Jhalak Prize
Awarded for	Book of the year by a writer of colour
Country	United Kingdom
Reward(s)	£1,000
First award	2017; 8 years ago (2017)
Website	Official website

The Jhalak Prize was launched in 2016 and was created by writers Sunny Singh, Nikesh Shukla, and Media Diversified. It is supported by The Authors’ Club and by The Jhalak Foundation,^[1] owned by Professor Singh's family. The prize and foundation are named after Professor Singh's grandmother.^[2] It is the second literary prize in the UK to only accept entries by writers of colour, following the SI Leeds Literary Prize for BAME women writers, which was first awarded in 2012. In 2017, the comedian Shappi Khorsandi withdrew her novel from the longlist because she said she felt that "my skin colour was up for an award rather than my book".^[3] Consequentially, the prize was reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission,^[4][5] but the complaint was not upheld, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission stated in 2017 that "this award is the type of action which the Commission supports and recommends".^[6]

In 2020, a sister award, the Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize, was founded.^[7]

Jhalak Prize (2017–2024) recipients

Jhalak Prize winners and shortlists

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Result	Ref.
2017[a]	Jacob Ross	The Bone Readers		Winner	[8][9]
	Kiran Millwood Hargrave	The Girl of Ink and Stars	The Chicken House	Shortlist	[10]
	Abir Mukherjee	A Rising Man	Harvill Secker	Shortlist	[10]
	Irenosen Okojie	Speak Gigantular	Jacaranda Books	Shortlist	[10]
	David Olusoga	Black and British: A Forgotten History	Macmillan Publishers	Shortlist	[10]
	Gary Younge	Another Day In The Death Of America	Faber	Shortlist	[10]
2018[b]	Reni Eddo-Lodge	Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race		Winner	[11][12]
	Nadeem Aslam	The Golden Legend	Faber	Shortlist	[13]
	Kayo Chingonyi	Kumukanda	Chatto & Windus	Shortlist	[13]
	Xiaolu Guo	Once Upon a Time in the East	Chatto & Windus	Shortlist	[13]
	Meena Kandasamy	When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife	Atlantic Books	Shortlist	[13]
	Kiran Millwood-Hargrave	The Island at the End of Everything	The Chicken House	Shortlist	[13]
2019[c]	Guy Gunaratne	In Our Mad and Furious City		Winner	[14][15]
	Akala	Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire	Two Roads	Shortlist	[16]
	Roma Agrawal	Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures	Bloomsbury	Shortlist	[16]
	Raymond Antrobus	The Perseverance	Penned in the Margins	Shortlist	[16]
	Aminatta Forna	Happiness	Bloomsbury	Shortlist	[16]
	Onjali Q. Rauf	The Boy At the Back of the Class	Orion Children's Books	Shortlist	[16]
2020[d]	Johny Pitts	Afropean: Notes From Black Europe		Winner	[17][18]
	Dean Atta	The Black Flamingo	Hodder Children's	Shortlist	[19]
	Yvonne Battle-Felton	Remembered	Dialogue Books	Shortlist	[19]
	Candice Carty-Williams	Queenie	Orion	Shortlist	[19]
	Mary Jean Chan	Flèche	Faber	Shortlist	[19]
	Romesh Gunesekera	Suncatcher	Bloomsbury	Shortlist	[19]
2021[e]	Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi	The First Woman		Winner	[20][21]
	Romalyn Ante	Antiemetic for Homesickness	Chatto & Windus	Shortlist	[22][23]
	Catherine Cho	Inferno	Bloomsbury	Shortlist	[22][23]
	Rachel Long	My Darling From the Lions	Picador	Shortlist	[22][23]
	Katy Massey	Are We Home Yet	Jacaranda Books	Shortlist	[22][23]
	Paul Mendez	Rainbow Milk	Dialogue Books	Shortlist	[22][23]
2022[f]	Sabba Khan	The Roles We Play		Winner	[24]
	Arifa Akbar	Consumed	Sceptre	Shortlist	[25][26]
	Mona Arshi	Somebody Loves You	And Other Stories	Shortlist	[25][26]
	Vahni Capildeo	Like a Tree, Walking	Carcenet Press	Shortlist	[25][26]
	Tice Cin	Keeping the House	And Other Stories	Shortlist	[25][26]
	Kei Miller	Things I Have Withheld	Canongate Books	Shortlist	[25][26]
2023[g]	Travis Alabanza	None of the Above		Winner	[27][28]
	Ayanna Lloyd Banwo	When We Were Birds	Hamish Hamilton	Shortlist	[29]
	Angela Hui	Takeaway	Trapeze	Shortlist	[29]
	Paterson Joseph	The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho	Dialogue Books	Shortlist	[29]
	Sheena Patel	I'm a Fan	Rough Trade Books	Shortlist	[29]
	Anita Pati	Hiding to Nothing	Liverpool University Press	Shortlist	[29]
2024[h]	Yepoka Yeebo	Anansi's Gold: The man who swindled the world	Bloomsbury	Winner	[30][31]
	Jason Allen-Paisant	Self-Portrait as Othello	Carcanet	Shortlist	[30]
	Elizabeth-Jane Burnett	Twelve Words for Moss	Penguin	Shortlist	[30]
	Jacqueline Crooks	Fire Rush	Vintage	Shortlist	[30]
	Noreen Masud	A Flat Place	Penguin	Shortlist	[30]
	Ami Rao	Boundary Road	Everything With Words	Shortlist	[30]

1. The 2017 judges were Sunny Singh, Catherine Johnson, Yvvette Edwards, Musa Okwonga, and Alex Wheatle.
2. The 2018 judges were Sunny Singh, Catherine Johnson, Tanya Byrne, Vera Chok, and Noo Saro-Wiwa.
3. The 2019 judges were Anna Perera, Sabrina Mahfouz, Sarah Shaffi, and Siana Bangura.
4. The 2020 judges were Roy McFarlane, Anita Sethi, Nikesh Shukla, and Kerry Young.
5. The 2021 judges were Yvonne Battle-Felton, Louise Doughty and Peter Kalu.
6. The 2022 judges were Mary Jean Chan, Chimene Suleyman and Stephen S. Thompson.
7. The 2023 judges were Haleh Agar, Yaba Badoe, Anthony Vahni Capildeo, Maisie Chan, Irfan Master and Monisha Rajesh.
8. The 2024 judges were Anni Domingo, Danielle Jawando, Stella Oni, J. P. Rose, Denise Saul and Rashmi Sirdeshpande.

Children's and Young Adult Prize recipients

Jhalak Children's and Young Adult Prize winners and shortlists

Year	Author	Title	Publisher	Result	Ref.
2021	Patrice Lawrence	Eight Pieces of Silva		Winner	[20][21]
	Nii Ayikwei Parkes and Avril Filomeno	The GA Picture Alphabet	Kane Series	Shortlist	[22][23]
	Kereen Getten	When Life Gives You Mangoes	Pushkin Children’s	Shortlist
	Danielle Jawando	And the Stars Were Burning Brightly	Simon & Schuster	Shortlist
	Catherine Johnson	Queen of Freedom	Pushkin Children’s	Shortlist
	Margaret Sturton	A Fox Called Herbert	Andersen Press	Shortlist
2022	Maisie Chan	Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths	Piccadilly Press	Winner	[24]
	Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé	Ace of Spades	Usborne Publishing	Shortlist	[25][26]
	Malorie Blackman and Dapo Adeola	We’re Going to Find the Monster	Puffin Books	Shortlist
	Jeffrey Boakye, illus by Ngadi Smart	The Musical Truth: A Musical History of Modern Black Britain in 28 Songs	Faber	Shortlist
	Rebecca Henry	The Sound of Everything	Everything With Words	Shortlist
	Manjeet Mann	The Crossing	Penguin	Shortlist
2023	Danielle Jawando	When our Worlds Collided	Simon & Schuster	Winner	[27][28]
	Lucy Farfort	In Our Hands	Tate	Shortlist	[29]
	Janelle McCurdy, illus by Ana Latese	Mia and the Lightcasters	Faber	Shortlist
	Christine Pillainayagam	Ellie Pillai Is Brown	Faber	Shortlist
	Ann Sei Lin	Rebel Skies	Walker Books	Shortlist
	Rashmi Sirdeshpande, illus. by Ruchi Mhasane	Dadaji’s Paintbrush	Andersen Press	Shortlist
2024	Hiba Noor Khan	Safiyyah's War	Andersen Press	Winner	[32][31]
	Nadia Shireen	Geoffrey Gets The Jitters	Penguin Random House	Shortlist	[32]
	Benjamin Dean	How to Die Famous	Simon & Schuster	Shortlist
	Nathaneal Lessore	Steady for This	Hot Key Books	Shortlist
	Erika Meza	To the Other Side	Hachette Children's	Shortlist
	Candy Gourlay	Wild Song	David Fickling	Shortlist

Notes