The Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour is an annual

literary prize A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. Man ...

awarded to British or British-resident

BAME A number of different systems of classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom exist. These schemata have been the subject of debate, including about the nature of ethnicity, how or whether it can be categorised, and the relationship betwe ...

writers. £1,000 is awarded to the sole winner. The Jhalak Prize was launched in 2016 and was created by writers Sunny Singh,

Nikesh Shukla Nikesh Shukla (born 8 July 1980) is a British people, British author and screenwriter. His writing focuses on race, racism, identity, and immigration. He is the editor of the 2016 collection of essays ''The Good Immigrant'', which features contr ...

, and

Media Diversified Media Diversified was a UK-based nonprofit media and advocacy organisation for writers and journalists of colour, founded by filmmaker Samantha Asumadu in 2013. It published nonfiction articles by a variety of writers at its website, which was updat ...

. It is supported by The Authors’ Club and by The Jhalak Foundation, owned by Professor Singh's family. The prize and foundation are named after Professor Singh's grandmother. It is the second literary prize in the UK to only accept entries by writers of colour, following the

SI Leeds Literary Prize The SI Leeds Literary Prize is a biennial award founded in 2012 by Soroptimist International of Leeds (SI Leeds) – a branch of the worldwide women's organization Soroptimist International – for unpublished fiction written by Black and Asian w ...

for BAME women writers, which was first awarded in 2012. In 2017, the comedian Shappi Khorsandi withdrew her novel from the longlist because she said she felt that "my skin colour was up for an award rather than my book". Consequentially, the prize was reported to the

Equality and Human Rights Commission The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a non-departmental public body in Great Britain, established by the Equality Act 2006 with effect from 1 October 2007. The Commission has responsibility for the promotion and enforcement of e ...

, but the complaint was not upheld, and the Equality and Human Rights Commmission stated in 2017 that "this award is the type of action which the Commission supports and recommends". In 2020, a sister award, the Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize, was founded.

Jhalak Prize recipients

Children's and Young Adult Prize recipients

Notes

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Official website
* Sunny Singh
"First year of Jhalak Prize paints a grim picture of diversity in publishing"
Media Diversified, 19 September 2017. Awards established in 2017 British fiction awards British literary awards Literary awards honoring minority groups