Shortlist announced for 2020 Jhalak Prize for BAME writers
The shortlist for the UK’s Jhalak Prize for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) writers has been announced.
The shortlisted titles are:
- The Black Flamingo (Dean Atta, Hodder Children’s)
- Remembered (Yvonne Battle-Felton, Dialogue)
- Queenie (Candice Carty-Williams, Trapeze)
- Fleche (Mary Jean Chan, Faber)
- Suncatcher (Romesh Gunesekera, Bloomsbury)
- Afropean: Notes From Black Europe (Johny Pitts, Penguin Press).
This is the fourth year of the Jhalak Prize, which was launched in 2016 to recognise ‘authors who feel that their work is often marginalised unless it fulfils a romantic fetishisation of their cultural heritage’ after the 2015 Writing the Future report found that the best chance of publication for writers of colour was to write literary fiction conforming to a stereotypical view of their communities.
The winner of the £1000 (A$1630) prize will be announced on 26 May. Last year’s winner was Guy Gunaratne for his debut novel In Our Mad and Furious City (Tinder Press).
Category: Awards International news
