15 must-read books by writers of colour, recommended by the Jhalak Prize judges

Maya & Marley series written by Laura Henry-Allain MBE and illustrated by Yabaewah Scott (2+)

I love how the words and gorgeous illustrations celebrate the beauty of everyday community life and the local heroes, like bin collectors, who make it possible. Laura's work is always transformative and inspiring, and this glorious series is no exception.

The latest book in the series, Maya & Marley and the New Friend, will be published in June 2026.

The Silver Shadow written by Mariesa Dulak and illustrated by Alea Marley (3+)

This beautifully illustrated story captures the unique majesty of sharks and reminds us to take better care of our oceans and all who live in them. Mariesa takes a deeply personal moment from her family quilt and transforms it into an important, relatable story for everyone.

Alyssa and the Spell Garden and Alyssa and the Enchanted Forest by Alex Sheppard (8+)

Alyssa's series celebrates and uplifts experiences of growing up in social housing, the power of nature in urban spaces and family beyond conventional perceptions. She masterfully blends the real world with a large dollop of magic to sublime effect.

The Cheat Book (Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3) by Ramzee (8+)

In Kamal, Ramzee has given us one of the most relatable, endearing characters that we've seen in a long time, and the fact that he happens to be a refugee of Muslim heritage is the icing on the cake. Through his everyday mishaps, adolescent hiccups and the hilarious comic-style illustrations, we learn so much about ourselves, each other and the things that unite, rather than divide, us.

Joyful, Joyful: 20 Stories by BRILLIANT Black Creators from Around the World curated by Dapo Adeola (8+)

This book brings happy tears to my eyes. I never thought I would see the day that such an empowering, honest and uplifting collection of tales and poems was celebrated across the industry and in schools. It doesn't surprise me at all that Dapo was the genius behind it.

About Lanisha Butterfield

Lanisha Butterfield was born and raised on a council estate in Oxford, and is of mixed heritage (White British / Black American). Flower Block, her debut picture book, was shortlisted for the Jhalak Children's & YA Prize 2025, and won the 2025 Children's Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing as well as the Derby Literary Festival Best Picture Book Prize 2025. Her next picture book, We Can Be Mermaids, will be published in June 2026.

We Can Be Mermaids written by Lanisha Butterfield and illustrated by Raissa Figueroa (3+)

Silver has a big heart and an even bigger dream to become a mermaid. There's just one problem: her dad can't swim. She decides to give up her dreams and stay on land with him.

After all, mermaids need dads, too. Our story is a mer-mazing reminder that swimming is for EVERYONE, your dreams matter, and there is never a bad time to try something new for someone you love.

Letters Home by Jennifer Wong

A quietly powerful collection on migration, distance and belonging, where language opens up emotional depth and the shifting nature of home.

Strange Beach by Oluwaseun Olayiwola

An intimate, sensuous debut moving between the body and ecology. It explores the body as a site of memory, transformation and environmental interconnection.

The Promised Land: Poems from Itinerant Life by André Naffis-Sahely

This is an expansive, politically alert collection that engages with migration, empire, and displacement, refracting global histories through lyric precision and moral awareness.

Divinations on Survival by Natalie Linh Bolderston

This is a dazzling and inventive debut that explores matrilineal memory across Vietnam and China, tracing war, inheritance, and survival through the myths and histories of family and place.

Honorifics by Cynthia Miller

Honorifics is a luminous and agile exploration of heritage and family, movement, and the Malaysian-Chinese identity. Drawing on Greek mythology, nature, and the cosmos, this is a hypnotic and evocative work that illuminates the complexities of identity and heritage.

About Romalyn Ante

Romalyn Ante is an award-winning Filipino-born British poet and editor. Her debut collection, Antiemetic for Homesickness, was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

Her second collection, Agimat, was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize, awarded the Arthur Welton Award, and was Poetry Book Society Recommendation and The Observer Poetry Book of the Month.

Romalyn was born and raised in Lipa, Philippines and migrated to the UK when she was sixteen. Beyond her literary pursuits, she is also a licensed nurse and CBT therapist.

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

Open Water is a love story and a quiet, lyrical meditation on vulnerability and what it means to be seen. The prose is stunning with a rhythm and melody and feels almost like poetry: something you absorb and feel in the body as much as follow in the mind. What makes this novel so beautiful is its ability to capture intimacy in a way that is both private and tender and yet shockingly exposed.

Assembly by Natasha Brown

A novel that feels deceptively simple but stays with you for a long time. It follows a woman who has done everything expected of her, yet she's constantly aware that her place in those spaces is not neutral. There's also a deeper tension that makes the novel so powerful: the sense that success has come at a cost – not just in effort, but in compromise, in what she has had to absorb or overlook to remain there.

Refuge: Stories of War (and Love) by Sunny Singh

A stunning collection of interconnected stories that move across borders, tracing lives shaped by migration, displacement and the search for belonging. I was particularly drawn to the way it attends to women's experiences within this – how they carry, adapt and endure, too often in ways that go noticed but unspoken. It holds the personal and political together, showing how larger forces quietly, sometimes devastatingly, sometimes joyfully, shape the course of a life.

The South by Tash Aw

This is a story that unfolds slowly, revealing its full shape over time, following characters who move across places and identities, never quite settled in either. There's a quiet sense of drift running through it – of lives shaped by movement, memory and the pull of elsewhere. It has a way of drawing you in almost without noticing, until you find yourself completely absorbed in its atmosphere.

A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo

This novel follows two young people whose lives unfold in parallel, shaped by very different circumstances, and the quiet distance that opens up between them feel both subtle and inevitable. I'm interested in that idea – that so much is determined or predetermined by the dominant culture before a choice is even made – and this novel captures it with real clarity and restraint.

About Ami Rao

Ami Rao is an award-winning British-American writer who has lived and worked in Asia, Europe, North America and the Caribbean. She has a BA in English Literature and an MBA from Harvard.

She is co-author of the memoir Centaur with jockey Declan Murphy, and the author of Jhalak Prize-shortlisted novel Boundary Road. Her other works include novel David and Ameena and novella Almost. When she is not writing, Ami can be found reading, listening to classical music or dabbling in jazz.