Like A Tree, Walking: Capildeo makes Jhalak shortlist

We're over the moon to be chosen as a Jhalak Prize bookshop champion for the astonishing Anthony Ezekiel (writing as Vahni Capildeo), who made it onto the Prize's stunning shortlist today!

The Jhalak prize celebrates books by British/British based writers of colour and is beloved by our booksellers for the richness, variety and creativity we see it showcase each year.

Capildeo is an extraordinary talent - bold, direct and playful. Readers will relish their latest experiments, pushing us to engage with silences and space in new ways. Like a Tree, Walking is destined to join the canon of ecopoetics, reflecting the concerns of our age in fascinating ways.

Vahni (Anthony Ezekiel) Capildeo is a Trinidadian Scottish writer whose eight books and eight pamphlets include Like a Tree, Walking, Measures of Expatriation, The Dusty Angel (Oystercatcher, 2021), Venus as a Bear, and Utter. Their interests include plurilingualism, traditional masquerade, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Just a few years ago Capildeo joined us for the launch of Skin Can Hold, where they entranced an audience in the round, masked and utterly spellbinding. Generous as ever, they shared the stage for their launch with 3 fellow boundary pushing poets Alycia Pirmohamed, Iain Morrison and JL Williams.

The shortlist, which also includes Kei Miller, Arifa Akbar, Tice Cin, Mona Arshi and Sabba Khan is a thing of beauty and we highly recommend checking them all out!