About

First awarded in March 2017, the Jhalak Prize awards seek to celebrate books by writers of colour in the UK and Ireland. In 2020, the single award was bifurcated to create a dedicated Jhalak Children’s YA Prize. From 2024, the Jhalak Poetry Prize has been added to our awards portfolio. Our poetry award is supported by the independent poetry publisher Ink Sweat & Tears with a special focus on their internship programme.

 

Our awards only accept entries published in the UK and Ireland by writers of colour. The Jhalak Prose Prize accepts entries including but not limited to fiction, non-fiction, short stories, graphic novels, and all other genres. The newly inaugurated Jhalak Poetry Prize accepts entries of poetry aimed at adults as well as children and young adults. The Jhalak Children’s and YA Prize accepts books for children, teens and young adults including picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, poetry, non-fiction, and all other genres by writers of colour and aimed at younger readers. The prizes are also open to self-published writers. The Prize annually awards £1000 to each winner along with a unique work of art created by artists chosen for the annual Jhalak Art Residency.

 

Furthermore, all winning authors receive two-year complimentary membership of The London Library, the UK's largest independent library.

Our annual awards comprise of:

1.    Jhalak Prose Prize
2.    Jhalak Poetry Prize
3.    Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize

Since 2021, the Prize has partnered with National Book Tokens to help increase awareness. Support amongst bookshops for Jhalak titles sees nearly 200 bookshops across the country from independents and Bookshop.org to Waterstones, Foyles and Blackwell’s supporting our awards instore and online. During the pandemic, the partnership also ran the Bookshop Champions programme to showcase and support independent bookshops in diverse reading communities which has grown to our Jhalak Prize Bookshop Partners programme. 

The Jhalak Prize awards are administered by the Jhalak Foundation, a UK registered charity that focusses on literary and artistic initiatives that celebrate and support diversity, inclusion and equity.