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Over the past decade, a host of prizes have been launched in the UK to recognise Black, brown, indigenous and minority ethnic talent. But are they really helping to sustain long-term careers?
The prominence of literary figures of British African and Asian descent has come along way since the early 2000s, when ground-breaking reports on diversity in publishing highlighted the paucity of recognition and prominence given to Black and brown writers as well as other marginalised groups in Britain. That progress has been in no small part due to the literary prizes established to identify such writers.
The most notable of these are the Queen Mary Wasafiri Prize for New Writing, The Commonwealth Prize and the Caine Prize, which was established with a focus wider than Britain but has none the less been of intense benefit to the UK publishing industry’s connections to writing cultures and creators of Black and brown extraction. There have also been some short-lived prizes that nevertheless had an impact on the cultural landscape, in particular the Muslim Writers Awards, for which I was privileged to judge a category when it was established, as well as the DSC Prize for South Asian writers. Still running are the S I Leeds Prize, which focuses on spotting talent among Black and Asian women, and The Guardian4thWrite Prize for BAME (Black and minority ethnic) writers.
In the realm of prizes and prestige, the prizes specifically targeted at Black and brown talent are built on the identification of relatively below-the-radar talent, rather than the recognition of established literary value
One newly established prize is the James Berry prize, which aims to identify talented Black African and Asian poetry talent; the Black Ballad prize, which is focused on Black women writers who are yet to publish a novel; and most promisingly, the charmingly named Woke Babies award, which is run by the eponymous company in partnership with DK, the BookTrust and the National Literacy Trust. Then there’s the FAB Prize, which aims to identify talented children’s writers, and was started by Faber Children’s and the Andlyn Literary Agency. Hopefully this might help to address a particularly stubborn failing in UK publishing to reflect the diversity of the population in children’s books, as discovered by two recent reports undertaken by Sheffield University and UCL in collaboration with the BookTrust.
Addressing the mass market, the Black Writers’ Guild made a recent call for more robust interventions to address the diversity imbalances in UK publishing. Diversity efforts worked a decade ago, having an amplifying effect and diversifying the range of voices in British publishing and arts more generally; yet it is probably time for more sophisticated schemes to diversify not just the voices being published but also the diversity of producers – and prizes are one part of the mix. In the realm of prizes and prestige, the prizes specifically targeted at Black and brown talent are built on the identification of relatively below-the-radar talent, rather than the recognition of established literary value. It remains to be seen whether British publishing can produce a prize of ungarnished prestige for its Black and Asian talent, as well as spotting them in their early (public) career moments.
The counter argument to this is that Black writers receive plenty of recognition on the UK and global literary circuit. The award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Abdulrazak Gurnah is one bit of positive evidence of this, and the establishment of the Jhalak Prize is another; the bet is now on to see if a prize that amplifies the voices of authors — particularly midlist authors — which is well-balanced in its choice and selection, and which is aimed specifically at recognising the voices of non-white established writers in the UK, can have staying power. There is always the danger that such a prize would lead to a certain "stereotyping" and block the prospect of such authors being entered, longlisted and shortlisted for, or winning, fully open prizes. But I’m not sure that really stops them from being worthwhile.
So where next for diversity-focused prizes? A good step would be to ask the stakeholders in the matter what they think. Almost 20 years on from Arts Council England’s Decibel Project, a survey of the views of British Black African and Asian writers on this would be well worth the effort. Any takers?
The Queen Mary New Writing Prize opens for submissions until 30th June 2022; the open date for submissions for the Jhalak Prize is yet to be announced but is usually between September and December; the announcement of the winners of the Caine Prize and the Commonwealth Writers prize usually take place in June.