Celebrating the Jhalak prize 2025 longlists

This year's Jhalak prize longlists have just been announced!

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 their portfolio.

To make it as easy as possible for you to browse all these phenomenal bo0ks on our website, we've listed them all here. You can click through to them via the list, or their covers at the bottom of the page.

Throughout the list, you'll also find a few wee links to event recordings and videos we've done with longlisted authors!

Jhalak Prose Prize longlist

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

Determination by Tawseef Khan

Dispersals by Jessica J. Lee

Everest, Ashani Lewis (Dialogue)

Manny and the Baby by Varaidzo

My Friends by Hisham Matar

Namesake: Reflections on a Warrior Woman by N.S. Nuseibeh - check out our reading with N.S. Nuseibeh during the 2024 Book Fringe HERE!

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

The Strangers by Ekow Eshun

The Rest of You by Maame Blue - here's a recording of our Edinburgh launch with Maame Blue!

The Thirty Before Thirty List by Tasneem Abdur-Rashid

Where We Come From: Rap, Home & Hope in Modern Britain by Aniefiok Ekpoudom

Jhalak poetry prize longlist

​Adam by Gboyega Odubanjo

Agimat by Romalyn Ante

amuk by Khairani Barokka - we recorded an episode of our Read Think Act series - on translation, rage and climate justice - with Khairani Barokka whuch you can watch here!

Boiled Owls by Azad Ashim Sharma

Collected Poems by Mimi Khalvati

Emotional Support Horse by Claudine Toutoungi

Fantasia by Nisha Ramayya

Horse by Rushika Wick

Self-Portrait with Family by Amaan Hyder

Signs, Music by Raymond Antrobus

The Tattoo Collector by Tim Tim Cheng - here's a recording of a reading with Tim Tim Cheng for a few years back!

Top Doll by Karen McCarthy Woolf

Jhalak Children and YA longlist

Bringing Back Kay-Kay by Dev Kothari

Flower Block by Lanisha Butterfield & Hoang Giang

It's Time to Hush and Say Goodnight by Chitra Soundar, ill Sandhya Prabhat

King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore

Little Dinosaurs Big Feelings by Swapna Haddow & Yiting Lee

Mayowa and the Sea of Words by Chibundu Onuzo

Red Sky at Night, Poet's Delight by Alex Wharton, ill Ian Morris

The Boy to Beat the Gods by Ashley Thorpe

The Gift by Jii and Nikos Parkes Trepkas

The Hidden Story of Estie Noor by Nadine Aisha Jassat, ill Sandhya Prabhat

The Thread That Connects Us by Ayaan Mohamud

These Stolen Lives by Sharada Keats