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Jhalak Prize 2025 shortlists revealed as founder hails work ‘full of love, hope and joy'
The Jhalak Prize 2025 shortlists have been revealed, with prize-founder Sunny Singh praising the shortlisted books as “exquisitely crafted, stunning works of literature full of love, hope and joy”.
First awarded in March 2017, the Jhalak Prize, the Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize founded in 2020 and the Jhalak Poetry Prize launched in 2024, seek to celebrate books by writers of colour in the UK and Ireland.
Each winner receives prize money of £1,000 along with the presentation of a unique work of art created by Jhalak Art Residency artists and a two-year complimentary membership of The London Library.
The Prose Prize was judged this year by Sareeta Domingo, Taran N Khan and Yepoka Yeebo.
They shortlisted: Everest by Ashani Lewis (Dialogue); Manny and the Baby by Varaidzo (Scribe); My Friends by Hisham Matar (Viking/PRH); Namesake: Reflections on a Warrior Woman by NS Nuseibeh (Canongate); The Rest of You by Maame Blue (Verve) and Where We Come From: Rap, Hope and Home in Modern Britain by Aniefiok Ekpoudom (Faber).
Taran N Khan said: “From deeply personal narratives to bold explorations of identity, history and belonging, these works reveal the power of literature to challenge, inspire and transform.”
Shortlisted for the Children’s and YA Prize 2025 are Bringing Back Kay-Kay by Dev Kothari (Walker); Flower Block by Lanisha Butterfield, illustrated by Hoang Giang (Puffin); King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore (Hot Key); Mayowa and the Sea of Words by Chibundu Onuzo (Bloomsbury); The Boy to Beat the Gods, by Ashley Thorpe (Usborne) and The Thread That Connects Us by Ayaan Mohamud (Usborne).
The Children’s and YA Prize was judged by Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Hiba Noor Khan and Alom Shaha.
Hiba Noor Khan said: “I’ve been inspired, entertained and moved by entries, and consistently reminded just how vital and urgent the prize is.”
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Up for the Jhalak Poetry Prize 2025 are Adam by Gboyega Odubanjo (Faber); Boiled Owls by Azad Ashim Sharma (Out-Spoken Press); Collected Poems by Mimi Khalvati (Carcanet); Horse by Rushika Wick (Broken Sleep Books); Self-Portrait with Family by Amaan Hyder (Nine Arches Press) and Top Doll by Karen McCarthy Woolf (Dialogue Books).
The Poetry Prize was judged by Jason Allen-Paisant, Malika Booker and Will Harris.
Allen-Paisant said: “What struck me most was the sheer breadth of concerns and the astonishing range of aesthetics among poetry written by writers of colour in the UK.”
The 2024 Jhalak Prose Prize was won by Yepoka Yeebo for Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Swindled the World (Bloomsbury Circus).
The Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize was won by Hiba Noor Khan for Safiyyah’s War (Andersen Press). The newly founded Jhalak Poetry Prize is supported by the independent poetry publisher Ink Sweat & Tears.
This year also sees the ongoing expansion of the annual Jhalak Art Residency. An artist of colour is commissioned to create a unique work of art that serves as the trophy for the winner of the three Jhalak Prize awards.
The artists in residence for 2025 are Lucy Farfort – Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize; Khaver Idrees – Jhalak Poetry Prize; and Ketna Patel – Jhalak Prose Prize.
Prize founder Sunny Singh said of the 2025 shortlists: “The authors on our 2025 shortlists do not flinch from harsh realities of our histories, times and lives.”
