Rajesh, Chan and Badoe to judge Jhalak Prize

Monisha Rajesh, Maisie Chan and Yaba Badoe are among the authors who will judge the Jhalak Prize 2023.

Established in 2016, the annual literary prize celebrates exceptional writing by British or British-resident writers of colour. It was founded by professor Sunny Singh and author Nikesh Shukla, in conjunction with Media Diversified and supported by the Authors’ Club. 

It spotlights writing across genre and format, with fiction, non-fiction, short stories, graphic novels, poetry and self-published writers, all eligible. A second award, the Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize, was inaugurated in 2020.

Badoe and Chan will be judging the Children’s & Young Adult Prize, joined by fellow author Irfan Master, while Rajesh, Haleh Agar and Anthony Vahni Capildeoare on the panel for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour.

Both prizes open for submissions today (6th September), closing on 9th December 2022, for books published between 1st January 2022 and 31st December 2022. The books must have been published in the UK in that year and originally published in English. The author of the work must have been resident in the UK for a minimum of the calendar year, in which the book is eligible.

Each winner will receive £1,000 and an original artwork by an artist of colour. The longlist will be announced on 15th March, with the shortlist following on 18th April 2023. Winners for both prizes will be announced at the British Library on 25th May next year.

Prize co-founder and director professor Sunny Singh said: "We’re thrilled to be going into our seventh year of the Jhalak Prizes. Our prize lists are going from strength to strength and we’re grateful for the immense talent, the glorious books, and the goodwill and togetherness of everyone involved that go into making these awards so special. We can’t wait to relish all the books that are submitted this year."

Previous winners of the Jhalak Prize include Sabba Khan for The Roles We Play (Myriad Editions), Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi for The First Woman (Oneworld), Johny Pitts for Afropean: Notes from Black Europe (Penguin), and Reni Eddo-Lodge for Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Bloomsbury), which recently surpassed a milestone for one million copies sold. 

The prize will continue its partnership with National Book Tokens for the third year running. The partnership, launched in 2021 to help increase awareness and support among bookshops for Jhalak titles, saw over 100 bookshops across the country from independents and Bookshop.org to Waterstones, Foyles and Blackwell’s supporting the 2022 prize instore and online.

It will also continue its ongoing relationship with The London Library, which offers shortlisted and winning authors complimentary membership and full access to the library’s resources. The building will also host a celebration of the prize for all the shortlisted authors of the Jhalak Prize and Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize.