ShelfEvidentJhalak Prize
2025 Winner
Complete History
2020s
- 2025Namesake — N.S. Nuseibeh
- 2024Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Swindled the World — Yepoka Yeebo
- 2023None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary — Travis Alabanza
- 2022The Roles We Play — Sabba Khan
- 2021The First Woman — Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
- 2020Afropean: Notes from Black Europe — Johny Pitts
About the Jhalak Prize
The Jhalak Prize is an annual UK literary award for the best book of the year by a British or British-resident writer of colour, founded in 2016 and first awarded in 2017. It was created by novelists Sunny Singh and Nikesh Shukla, in partnership with Media Diversified, to address systemic underrepresentation of writers of colour in British literary prize culture. The prize is named after Singh's grandmother. It accepts entries across all genres — fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children's books — ensuring that writers of colour working in any form can be recognised. The prize is the second UK literary award specifically for writers of colour, following the SI Leeds Literary Prize for BAME women writers. From 2020 a companion Jhalak Children's & YA Prize has been awarded separately, and from 2025 the main prize was split into separate Prose and Poetry prizes. Past winners of the prose prize include Jacob Ross's The Bone Readers (2017), Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (2018), Guy Gunaratne's In Our Mad and Furious City (2019), Johny Pitts's Afropean (2020), Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's The First Woman (2021), Sabba Khan's The Roles We Play (2022), Travis Alabanza's None of the Above (2023), and Yepoka Yeebo's Anansi's Gold (2024). The prize carries a £1,000 award and a specially commissioned artwork.
Frequently Asked Questions
- An annual £1,000 UK literary award for the best book by a British or British-resident writer of colour. Founded in 2016 by Sunny Singh and Nikesh Shukla, the prize accepts all genres and champions diversity in British publishing.
- Any British or British-resident writer of colour (BAME) whose book has been published in the UK during the preceding year. All genres are eligible: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and — for the companion prize — children's and YA books.
- From 2020, a separate Jhalak Children's & YA Prize was established. From 2025, the adult prize was split into separate Prose and Poetry prizes. Each carries its own £1,000 prize and commissioned artwork.
- The prize is named after the grandmother of co-founder Sunny Singh.
- Recent winners include Travis Alabanza for None of the Above (2023), Yepoka Yeebo for Anansi's Gold (2024), and N.S. Nuseibeh for Namesake (2025 Prose Prize).
- To address the systemic underrepresentation of writers of colour in British literary awards and publishing more broadly. Studies showed that BAME authors were consistently underrepresented on mainstream prize lists.
- Yes, £1,000 is awarded to each prize winner, along with a specially commissioned artwork created as part of the Jhalak Art Residency.