Jhalak Prize Announces Longlists for 10th Year Celebrating Writers of Colour

By LoveReading | 17th March 2026

Today, 17th March 2026, the Jhalak Prize announced its longlists for the Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize, the Jhalak Poetry Prize and the Jhalak Prose Prize. The longlists mark a decade of the Jhalak Prize and exemplify the excellence that the Prize seeks to celebrate.

What is the Jhalak Prize?

In 10 years, the Jhalak Prize has grown from a single all-encompassing prize to a portfolio of three awards: the Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize, the Jhalak Poetry Prize and the Jhalak Prose Prize, all celebrating the creativity, imagination and scholarly achievements of writers of colour in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Prize Director, Sunny Singh commented, "The past decade of the Jhalak Prize is a testament to the range and quality of work by writers of colour in Britain, and their commitment and determination to publish and reach readers."

The Judges

Jacob Ross, the first ever Jhalak Prize winner (and judge this year) described each book on the 2026 Jhalak Prize longlists as a powerful act of creative resistance.

In robust and passionate discussions, the judges found it challenging to select only twelve books for each longlist, describing the process as ‘an honour and heartache.'

The Jhalak Prize is an act of love, of family-making with our fellow authors, and I am incredibly proud of the writers who have become part of the Jhalak family as long and shortlisted authors, winners and judges."

The 2026 Longlists

Jhalak Poetry Prize

Dante’s Inferno by Lorna Goodison

Foretokens by Sarah Howe

Fragments by Tara Singh

Heirloom by Catherine-Esther Cowie

Holy Boys by Andrés N. Ordorica

I Sing to the Greenhearts by Maggie Harris

Leaning Against Time by SuAndi

My Dearest Friend by Lady Red Ego

Nature Matters by (eds) Mona Arshi & Karen McCarthy Woolf

Pulling Faces by Zakariye

The New Carthaginians by Nick Makoha

Why I am not a Bus Driver by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

Jhalak Prose Prize

Act Normal: Joy and Despair in Postcolonial Britain by Pete Kalu

Before We Hit the Ground by Selali Fiamanya

Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo

I Want to Talk to You by Diana Evans

The South by Tash Aw

Love Forms by Claire Adam

Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal

The Science of Racism by Keon West

Foreign Fruit by Katie Goh

Minority Rule: Culture Wars and the Rentier Class: Adventures in the Culture War by Ash Sarkar

Hail Mary by Funmi Fetto

Shamiso by Brian Chikwava

Jhalak Prize for Children and Young People

And to view the Jhalak Prize 2026 Longlist for children and young people, visit our feature on LoveReading4Kids.

The three Jhalak Prize awards celebrate writing by BAME writers living in the United Kingdom and Ireland and annually award £1,000 to three winners. The Jhalak Prize’s ongoing partnership with National Book Tokens sees bookshops up and down the country championing the prize, each year reaching new reading communities.

Furthermore, two artists of colour are annually commissioned to create unique works of art that serves as trophies for the winners of the Jhalak Poetry Prize and Jhalak Prose Prize. A children’s book illustrator of colour is commissioned to create a unique work for the winner of the Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize.