Jhalak Foundation and WritersMosaic launch The Review

The Jhalak Foundation and the Royal Literary Fund’s WritersMosaic are launching The Review, an editorially independent, 16-page biannual insert in The Bookseller.

The Review will be produced by and feature writers of the global majority, both in and outside the UK. While its placement in The Bookseller ensures visibility to the wider publishing industry, The Review will be “first and foremost a space for complex and comprehensive literary discussions, and debate that addresses the imperial gaze and moves beyond its reach” The Review team said.  

The Review is edited and curated by novelist Guy Gunaratne with support from genre-specific curators including Irenosen Okojie (Fiction), Will Harris (Poetry), Colin Grant (Non-fiction), Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Margaret Sturton (Children and Young Adults) and Sarah Shaffi (Forthcoming Titles). 

The first edition of The Review will be published in spring 2024 as an insert in The Bookseller. Additional print copies will be made available on request to independent bookshops and community organisations. An online edition of The Review will also be published on WritersMosaic. 

Gunaratne said of the new publication: “Our new journal intends to throw a rigorous and sustained light on some of the most fascinating writers working today. There is an editorial preference for criticism that acts as formative dialogue, revelry in the untried and unexplored, and for writing that makes room for a spirited argument. There is also a sense of unruly defiance on our part. It’ll be like nothing anyone has seen before positioned at the heart of our industry.” 

Grant, WritersMosaic director, explained: “In joining with the Jhalak Foundation to launch The Review, WritersMosaic relishes the chance to promote this vital work of commissioning new reviews by writers of the global majority in the UK, focused on books by writers of the global majority. At the heart of this exciting new project is a determination to shine a spotlight on these books, and to ensure that the rigour of the review writing will be matched by the quality of the editing.” 

Sunny Singh of the Jhalak Foundation added: “We at the Jhalak Foundation are honoured to partner with WritersMosaic for a new publication that showcases and celebrates the range and excellence of literature by writers of the global majority in the UK. Placed at the heart of publishing as an insert in The Bookseller, this new publication will not only showcase great writing by extraordinary contemporary writers, but also create a space for necessary and urgent literary and cultural discussions. Our incredible team of curators stands as a testament to the highest quality of contemporary literary output.”