Over 150 bookshops show support for the Jhalak Prizes this year

Over 150 bookshops across the country have supported the Jhalak Prize and Jhalak Children’s and YA Prize this year. 

As part of the prizes’ partnership with National Book Tokens, shops have taken point-of-sale material to promote the prizes in-store, as well as highlighting both longlists and shortlists across websites and social media. 

Bookshops are running various initiatives to raise awareness of the awards. Blackwell’s, for example, launched a Jhalak Prize shadowing scheme with two booksellers reading all longlist titles to review, promote and make their own winner predictions. Meanwhile, Foyles has launched in-store displays and an online promotion, while Waterstones has shown support on social platforms.

Indies such as Bookbag and the Penrallt Gallery Bookshop have also stepped up to show their support, while Drake the Bookshop, a in Stockton-on-Tees family-run indie bookshop owned by Melanie Greenwood and Richard Drake, has been championing the prizes for a couple of years. Greenwood said that doing so has enabled the booksellers to "support a diverse range of writers". 

She explained: "Using the p.o.s. to showcase the books is a great focal point for raising awareness both in the shop and on social media. It’s also a very good way of recommending an up to date, curated list of excellent books by writers of colour to help our customers diversify their reading — which is the angle we took with our social media posts." 

For Drake the Bookshop, Ellie Pillai is Brown by Christine Pillainayagam (Faber) and Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin (Walker Books) have been bestsellers on the children’s shortlist. Meanwhile, Sheena Patel’s I Am A Fan (Granta) and When We Were Birds (Penguin) by Ayanna LLoyd Banwo have emerged as bestsellers on the adult shortlist.  

The booksellers at Drake the Bookshop are also hoping to interview some of the authors on the children’s shortlist for their new children’s book review podcast, "Quacked Spines". "We launched [the podcast] in January after being inspired by the interview with Frank Cottrell Boyce and Robin Steven’s where they vent their frustration at the lack of discussion and review of children’s books," Greenwood said. 

British Book Awards Independent Bookshop of the Year Griffin Books has also been supporting the prize. Mel Tuke Griffin, owner of the Penarth-based bookshop, is planning to step up the publicity over the remaining days before the winner is announced, with an in-store display of all shortlisted titles, a featured collection in their online shop, and more social media posts.

"We are big supporters of the Jhalak Prize in principle, and of its objectives in giving more exposure to writers of colour," Griffin said. "It’s important to us to reflect the diversity within our community and our country on our shelves, and for everyone to feel welcome and affirmed within our shop, so supporting the Jhalak Prize is one of the ways we do that." 

She added "The timing is unfortunate, however, because during the same overall period we are promoting the Welsh children’s book prize (Tir Na N-Og) and the Wales Book of the Year award, which obviously have particular local resonance for us. But one of our shop book clubs chose one of the shortlisted titles (When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo) and really enjoyed reading and discussing it, and we have pitched for an in-person event with another shortlisted author, Angela Hui, who lives and whose book is set in Wales."

Sunny Singh, Jhalak Prize director, commented: "I am awestruck each year by the bookshops that take our point-of-sale material and promote our longlist and shortlist on their newsletters, social media, in-store and through online and in-person activities. These wonderful bookshops are located in cities as well as communities of every size and in every part of the country and are absolutely essential to the Jhalak Prize.

"The enthusiasm and support from bookshops who bring books from our long and shortlists to readers in their communities is joyful, magical, and humbling."

Alex de Berry, managing director of National Book Tokens, added: "It’s been a joy to work with the Jhalak Prize since our partnership began, and to see the number of bookshops who display point-of-sale and enthusiastically support the prize in their own unique ways increasing every year. Booksellers are intrinsically embedded in their local communities and so well-placed to share new titles with readers, so we’re thrilled to see that they’re promoting the rich and varied stories on the Jhalak Prize lists to their customers."