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.
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, owned by Professor Singh's family. The prize and foundation are named after Professor Singh's grandmother. 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". Consequentially, the prize was reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, 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".
In 2020, a sister award, the Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize, was founded.
From 2025 onwards the prize was divided into two separate awards for prose and poetry.
Jhalak Prize (2017–2024) recipients +Jhalak Prize winners and shortlistsYearAuthorTitlePublisherResultRef.2017WinnerShortlistHarvill SeckerShortlistSpeak GigantularJacaranda BooksShortlistBlack and British: A Forgotten HistoryMacmillan PublishersShortlistAnother Day In The Death Of AmericaFaberShortlist2018Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About RaceWinnerFaberShortlistKumukandaChatto & WindusShortlistOnce Upon a Time in the EastChatto & WindusShortlistWhen I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young WifeAtlantic BooksShortlistShortlist2019In Our Mad and Furious CityWinnerAkalaNatives: Race and Class in the Ruins of EmpireTwo RoadsShortlistBuilt: The Hidden Stories Behind Our StructuresBloomsburyShortlistPenned in the MarginsShortlistHappinessBloomsburyShortlistOrion Children's BooksShortlist2020Afropean: Notes From Black EuropeWinnerHodder Children'sShortlistRememberedDialogue BooksShortlistQueenieOrionShortlistFlècheFaberShortlistSuncatcherBloomsburyShortlist2021WinnerAntiemetic for HomesicknessChatto & WindusShortlistInfernoBloomsburyShortlistMy Darling From the LionsPicadorShortlistAre We Home YetJacaranda BooksShortlistRainbow MilkDialogue BooksShortlist2022WinnerConsumedSceptreShortlistSomebody Loves YouAnd Other StoriesShortlistLike a Tree, WalkingCarcenet PressShortlistKeeping the HouseAnd Other StoriesShortlistThings I Have WithheldCanongate BooksShortlist2023None of the AboveWinnerWhen We Were BirdsHamish HamiltonShortlistTakeawayTrapezeShortlistDialogue BooksShortlistI'm a FanRough Trade BooksShortlistHiding to NothingLiverpool University PressShortlist2024Anansi's Gold: The man who swindled the world BloomsburyWinnerSelf-Portrait as OthelloCarcanet Shortlist Twelve Words for MossPenguinShortlistFire RushVintageShortlist PenguinShortlistBoundary RoadEverything With WordsShortlist
Prose Prize +Jhalak Prose Prize winners and shortlistsYearAuthorTitleResultRef.2025 N.S. Nuseibeh Namesake Winner Maame Blue The Rest of You Shortlist Aniefiok Ekpoudom Where We Come From Ashani Lewis Everest Hisham Matar My Friends Varaidzo Manny and the Baby2026 Diana Evans I Want to Talk to You Winner Tash Aw The South Shortlist Funmi Fetto Hail Mary Katie Goh Foreign Fruit Xiaolu Guo Call Me Ishmaelle Pete Kalu Act Normal: Joy and Despair in Postcolonial Britain
Poetry Prize +Jhalak Poetry Prize winners and shortlistsYearAuthorTitleResultRef.2025 Mimi Khalvati Collected Poems Winner Amaan Hyder Self-Portrait with Family Shortlist Karen McCarthy Woolf Top Doll Gboyega Odubanjo Adam Azad Ashim Sharma Boiled Owls Rushika Wick Horse2026 Maggie Harris I Sing to the Greenhearts Winner Ashley Hickson-Lovence Why I am not a bus driver Shortlist Sarah Howe Foretokens Lady Red Ego My Dearest Friend Nick Makoha The New Carthaginians Andrés N. Ordorica Holy Boys
Children's and Young Adult Prize recipients +Jhalak Children's and Young Adult Prize winners and shortlistsYearAuthorTitlePublisherResultRef.2021Eight Pieces of SilvaWinner and Avril FilomenoKane Series Shortlist When Life Gives You Mangoes Pushkin Children'sAnd the Stars Were Burning BrightlySimon & SchusterQueen of Freedom Pushkin Children'sAndersen Press2022Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths Piccadilly PressWinnerAce of Spades Usborne Publishing Shortlist and Dapo AdeolaWe're Going to Find the MonsterPuffin Books, illus by Ngadi SmartFaberEverything With WordsPenguin2023When our Worlds CollidedSimon & SchusterWinnerIn Our HandsTate Shortlist , illus by Ana LateseMia and the Lightcasters FaberEllie Pillai Is BrownFaberRebel SkiesWalker Books, illus. by Ruchi MhasaneDadaji’s Paintbrush Andersen Press2024Safiyyah's WarAndersen PressWinnerGeoffrey Gets The JittersPenguin Random House Shortlist Benjamin DeanHow to Die FamousSimon & SchusterSteady for ThisHot Key BooksTo the Other SideHachette Children'sWild SongDavid Fickling2025 Nathanael Lessore King of Nothing Winner Lanisha Butterfield and Hoang Giang Flower Block Shortlist Dev Kothari Bringing Back Kay-Kay Ayaan Mohamud The Thread That Connects Us Chibundu Onuzo Mayowa and the Sea of Words Ashley Thorpe The Thread That Connects Us2026 Fidan Meikle My Name is Samim Winner Truly Johnston The Shell Keepers Shortlist Manjeet Mann Roar Chanté Timothy Supa Nova Kenechi Udogu Augmented Forest Xiao How to Catch an Idea
Notes
References
External links Official website Sunny Singh, "First year of Jhalak Prize paints a grim picture of diversity in publishing", Media Diversified, 19 September 2017.