The Jhalak Prize for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Writers (BAME) was only set up last year, to challenge the lack of diversity in literature, and the first winner is announced as Jacob Ross for his crime novel The Bone Readers.
The prize was founded last year to improve the poor representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic writers and was funded by an anonymous donor. Now the first year is complete, it’s announced that the prize will run again next year.
Upon announcement of the award, just 51 books were submitted for entry, despite it being open to all genres and even self published writers. This, organisers say just shows up the lack of diversity in literature. After a second appeal, 121 books were finally submitted and The Bone Readers is the overall winner.
The Bone Readers follows the story of Digger, a plainclothes police officer working in a rogue police force on the Caribbean island of Camaho who has a special talent of being able to read bones under LED lights. The novel is the first of a quartet following the character and has been received well.
Ross is the author of two short story collections, The Bone Readers and the 2009 acclaimed novel Pynter Bender.
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