Jhalak Prize

About

First awarded in March 2017, the Jhalak Prize and its sister award Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize founded in 2020, seek to celebrate books by writers of colour in Britain and Ireland.

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2024 Shortlists

Jhalak Prize Shortlist 2024

Jhalak C&YA Shortlist 2024

2024

Shortlist Evening

2nd May - London Library

Winner announcement:

30 May 2024

Art Residency

Our trophies are a unique work of art created by an artist of colour in the UK. An annual art commission to create a unique work that addresses the ethos, principles and goals of the Jhalak Prize and serves as the trophy for the year.

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Books To Readers Programme

Partnering with independent bookshops to get books by writers of colour to as many readers as possible.

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Previous winners

Sponsor

In Hindi and many related Northern Indian dialects, Jhalak means ‘glimpse’; implicitly brief, often tantalising with promise, piquing curiosity to explore further. It seems an appropriate name for what I believe is the first prize for Book Of The Year By A Writer of Colour.

The Jhalak Prize will recognise the vastness of talent, ambition and creative vigour that is often overlooked by an industry that has yet to decolonize its gaze and acknowledge that we do not live in world of lactified centres and rainbow peripheries.

- The benefactor providing the prize money, who wishes to remain anonymous