Diana Evans, Maggie Harris and Fidan Meikle win the 2026 Jhalak Prizes
The 2026 Jhalak Prizes went to Diana Evans for prose, Maggie Harris for poetry and Fidan Meikle for children's and young adult writing.
The 2026 Jhalak Prizes were presented in London on 10 June 2026. Diana Evans won the Prose Prize for I Want to Talk to You: And Other Conversations (Chatto & Windus). Maggie Harris won the Poetry Prize for I Sing to the Greenhearts, published by the Welsh independent Seren Books. Fidan Meikle won the Children's and Young Adult Prize for My Name is Samim, a middle-grade story from the Edinburgh publisher Floris Books.
Each winner receives £1,000 and a trophy commissioned from an artist. The prize, founded in 2016, recognises books by writers of colour working in the UK and Ireland, and since 2025 has run separate prose, poetry and children's awards.
Two of the three winning books came from independent publishers based outside London, in Wales and Scotland.
Why it matters: the Jhalak remains a modest prize in cash terms, but its shortlists travel well among booksellers, librarians and reading groups. This year's results show that a small regional press can win on equal terms with a Penguin Random House imprint, which is worth remembering for any writer weighing where to place a book.
Sources: Publishing Perspectives: the 2026 Jhalak Prize winners; The Bookseller: Evans, Meikle and Harris win Jhalak Prizes 2026.