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The Jhalak Prize will return for its fourth year in 2020 with prize co-founder Nikesh Shukla and Anita Sethi to join the judging panel.
Following two years of all-female judging panels, this year's panel features author, journalist and screenwriter Shukla and award-winning journalist, writer and critic Sethi, alongside poet and former community worker Roy McFarlane and novelist Kerry Young.
The Jhalak Prize For Book of the Year By a Writer Of Colour seeks out the best of literary production by British/British resident BAME writers and awards one winner £1,000. The 2020 competition is now open for submissions.
Guy Gunaratne won the 2019 prize with his debut novel, In Our Mad and Furious City (Tinder Press). Previous winners include Jacob Ross for The Bone Readers (Peepal Tree) and Reni Eddo-Lodge for her non-fiction debut, Why I am No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Bloomsbury).
Co-founder and prize administrator Sunny Singh said: “Since its inception, the Jhalak Prize has focused on celebrating the astonishing quality and range of work by writers of colour in the UK. This year promises even greater literary riches. I am also in awe of the judging panel which includes some of most incredible contemporary writers in Britain today.”
Started in 2016 by authors Singh and Shukla, and Media Diversified, with support from The Authors’ Club and a prize donated by an anonymous benefactor, the prize exists to celebrate the achievements of British writers of colour.
The prize will be open for submissions until 15th December 2019 for books published between 1st January 2019 and 31st December 2019. 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. Fiction, non-fiction, short story, graphic novel, poetry, children’s books, YA, teen and all genres are welcome. The prize is also open to self-published writers.
The longlist will be revealed in March 2020, followed by a shortlist announcement in April 2020 before the winner is declared on 26th May 2020.