Shortlist announced for 2021 Jhalak Prize for BAME writers

The shortlist for the UK’s Jhalak Prize for Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) writers, and the inaugural Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize have been announced.

The titles shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize are:

• Antiemetic for Homesickness (Romalyn Ante, Chatto & Windus)
• Inferno (Catherine Cho, Bloomsbury)
• My Darling From the Lions (Rachel Long, Picador)
• The First Woman (Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Oneworld)
• Are We Home Yet (Katy Massey, Jacaranda)
• Rainbow Milk (Paul Mendez, Dialogue Books)

The titles shortlisted for the Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize are:

• The GA Picture Alphabet (Nii Ayikwei Parkes & Avril Filomeno, Kane Series)
• When Life Gives You Mangoes (Kereen Getten, Pushkin Children’s)
• And the Stars Were Burning Brightly (Danielle Jawando, S&S)
• Queen of Freedom (Catherine Johnson, Pushkin Children’s)
• Eight Pieces of Silva (Patrice Lawrence, Hodder Children’s)
• A Fox Called Herbert (Margaret Sturton, Andersen Press).

This is the fifth 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’. It was established 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 winners, who each receive £1000 (A$1800), will be announced on 25 May. Last year’s winner was Johny Pitts for Afropean: Notes From Black Europe (Penguin Press).

Category: International news