 With thearat cassette album on paper Welcome Back We've been waiting so long to open the doors You the audience are able to join us remotely We're inside the library and the library's reading rooms are open and you've also still got time to catch our amazing exhibition UN-FINISH'd business The Fight for Women's Rights so we've been dying to get back in and what better way to celebrate than with the Jalak Prize today will elead us on that Jalak journey Gweithio'r llyfrgyrch, y profesor yn ystod, Sonny Sing, y cofawr yn ysgolwyr a ysgolwyr yng Nghymru a'r llyfrgyrch yn ysgolwyr. Mae'n fawr i'r fawr i'r fawr, ac yn ystod yn ei ddweud. Ddweud i'r fawr. Ddweud i'r fawr i'r fawr i'r fawr anhygoel. Yn y gweithio'r ysgolwyr, mae'n ddweud i'r fawr i'r ddweud. Mae'n ddweud i'r fawr gan gweithio'm gredig gwesti nin posi уже ar gyflwyno'n rhan, ac dal da dyma ar gyfer eu rhannu pelhau nhw i chi. Snoddystdu diwrnodau am yr anhygoel. byddwn ni gŵr o'r dweud. Ddi fod, ymddiech eu geist mediadol a chan gael ei ddweud ac ymdditadau yn awr rhaid. IDly, confused a'r gylligeu telet Ìsig, of brilliant writers of a Britain that is complicated, international, multicultural, a Britain that is not only home to incredible writers of colour but also fertile ground where we create our stories, root our imaginations and imagine a nation and a world that is different from what has gone on before. The Jelloc Prize is an annual literary prize for British or British resident writers of colour. It was established in 2016, founded by me and Nikeshukla in conjunction with Media Diversified and supported by the Historic Authors Club. It is a unique celebration of the rich array of exceptional work from writers of colour, whether it be fiction, non-fiction, short stories, graphic novels or poetry. The prize is uniquely also open to self-published writers. A new sister award, the Jelloc Children's and YA Prize, was announced in 2020 and will be awarded for the first time today. It is open to a broad church of picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, poetry and non-fiction, all intended for children and young adults. Both of our awards provide £1,000 to the winner and of course a uniquely created work of art by a British or British resident artist of colour. The previous winners for the Jelloc Prize are 2017 Jacob Ross, Rennie Edo Lodge in 2018, Guy Gunnarutne for our in our Mad and Furious City in 2019. I should probably also mention titles for this, but let's continue. And Johnny Pitts for Afropian in 2020. Just a quick note, we are entirely administered by volunteers, so thank you Jamila Amed, Tashmere Owen and Hamza Chahanzeb and various supporters who prefer not to be named. And thank you to the anonymous donor who has extended our funding for the next five years, so I'm glad to announce that today. Thank you also to British Library for hosting us, to National Book Tokens for the support for the prize and to our Books to Readers program. And thank you to our 12 bookshop champions, independent bookshops who have been championing a title each from our two short lists for these past weeks. Now in Hindi and many related North Indian dialects, Jelloc means glimpse, implicitly brief, often tantalising with promise, peaking curiosity to explore further. It is in South Asian Sufi literature also a glimpse of the beloved of the divine. Our winners, short lists, long lists are just this. A Jelloc, a glimpse into the bounty of literary creativity, inventiveness and creation by writers of colour in Britain. And next hour we'll provide just that, a glimpse into this wealth of writing being produced in this country. So first of all, we will start by talking to two of our judges. I welcome Louis Daughty who was a judge for the fifth Jelloc prize and Candy Gorlay who was on the panel for the inaugural Jelloc Children's and Young Adult Prize. Many of you will know Louise. She's an internationally acclaimed author of nine novels. Her Blackwater was nominated as one of the New York Times notable books of the year. Apple Tree Yard was a number one bestseller and adapted into a four-part drama for BBC. Whatever You Love was nominated for Costa Novel Award and the Orange Prize. Her list of nominations for awards is truly extraordinary. She's also the author of two historical works of fiction which are based on the history of the Roma people and her own Romani ancestry. Her work has been translated into 30 languages. Candy is a writer for children and young adults. Her latest book is a comic biography illustrated by Tom Knight of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan who happens to have been credited with discovering the Philippines. Her novel Bone Talk was shortlisted for the Carnegie Mellon medal and the Costa Prize in 2019. Her picture book is it a mermaid illustrated by Francesca Chesa was nominated for the Kate Greenway medal. Her novels have also been listed for the Waterstones, the Blue Peter and the Guardian Children's Book Prize. So welcome both of you. Thank you. Thanks Senni. Thank you. And I'm going to start with you Louise. The Chalock judges discussions are master classes of literature and of writing. I sit as an observer and learn so much. Their discussions are nuanced and informed and rigorous and wide-ranging and it's such a treat to just sit quietly in the corner and listen. But can you tell us a little bit about this past these past months of reading and judging from your end? Well the book started coming in thick and fast before Christmas which was wonderful and in fact I have a quite hilarious relationship with my postman. Basically if there's a jiffy bag for anyone in our street he just brings it to my door. He says oh Louise more books for you. I think I gave him a bit of a hernia actually but we had I think it was around 150 and we all read completely independently myself, Peter and Yvonne, my fellow judges. We didn't really collude. Occasionally we would put something on a spreadsheet which you did so brilliantly. I'm such a klutz I don't know how to use a spreadsheet so I never put my opinions up. But what was extraordinary is that when we finally started sharing our favourites to move towards a long list just how much agreement there already was. We all we had personal favourites but there was a huge amount of crossover without any collusion between us at all which does suggest there is some kind of objective process at work and with each of our meetings I mean you say it was a masterclass I couldn't agree more. I went in full of thoughts brimming of things I wanted to say and then Peter or Yvonne would say something and I think oh yes you're completely right I must go back to that book and every single book of theirs which hadn't been on my original list to put forward I went back to I saw new things in. It was really a complete joy to judge and I've judged a lot of prizes and I've never had as much fun as I did with this one. That's always what we want to hear and Candy you judged the very first children's and young adult award so in a sense you and your fellow judges were setting the boundaries and values for this prize. What were some of the ideas and thoughts and concerns that you and your fellow judges had about this? Well in the first place it was like a panic because how are you supposed to judge picture books against young adult books, younger fiction, there was a wordless book, it was just like a range of books and how are you going to pick one book out of all of them and it was very helpful when you sent it as an email quite early on you sent us an email saying Catherine Johnson was a judge in a previous Jalach prize and she said something like what you've got to do is you look at every book in terms of its field and decide whether that is outstanding in its field and that was great that was really really helpful I put as the books came in I piled them up picture books on one side non-fiction chapter books middle grade younger fiction young adult and then I read them against each other and the next bit was it was even more difficult because they're all wonderful I am I am such a fan of children's books I'm addicted to them and I wanted to shortlist all the picture books for example I mean how are you supposed to pick they're beautiful they're illustrated and then you read the young adult books and you realize that these authors have poured their hearts and souls into these books and you imagine the readers one of the things that differentiates us I think from the from the adult prize is we had to constantly imagine the readers you know you imagine the parents reading those picture books the children you imagine the teenager reading this book and wanting to read it again and again and again and seeing themselves in the book you imagine the middle grade reader going on an adventure stealing an elephant and that was what we had to to do and then the final bit which was after having made that shortlist we then had to decide against you know this whole range of the shortlist is up behind us and you know you had you had a younger fiction you had a historical fiction you had a mystery book you had a picture book how do you decide and well I don't know I don't know how we decided it's a mystery the mystery now we were I'm going to ask you about the mystery both panels selected incredibly strong long lists and then somehow managed to decide on a shortlist that was even stronger somehow not sure how they did that and then hopefully tonight picked a winner I know that all the judges have their own criteria but can you tell us a little bit louise about what you looked for when you were long listing and short listing and finally today picking a winner well candy's quite right I think it was really helpful when you reminded us that the main thing is does a book succeed within its own terms within the category that it is because of course your prize had great range and we also had fiction nonfiction poetry the nonfiction included personal memoir it included fantastic works of scholarship and history how do you set that aside next to say a new voice in poetry that's startling you have to look at it in its own terms but I think at the most basic level once you've got it down to a long list you are down to personal reaction is this a book that you think about when you've not actually got it in your hands is it a book that you want to press upon other people is it a book that you read and find yourself forgetting that you're judging a literary prize because you're so absorbed in the book and that was true of all our long list and then after that of course it just gets harder and harder and harder and I can't emphasise how agonising it was at each stage to leave books out it was agonising to get to the long list there were huge numbers of brilliant books we had to leave out it was even more agonising to get to a short list and excruciating to get down to a winner you you feel so much for you just want to give the prize so many times yeah I completely understand that it's always been agonising to to go through there's so many great books um Kenny and one of the ideas one of the thoughts I was asked about because you know you also had um a complex process it was a very difficult year um out of the three judges Verna Wilkins who'd done an immense amount of reading um had to you know then step back because of personal reasons this has been a year full of difficulties and personal losses and a lot of complexity um how was that how did that work what were some of the the best parts and the worst parts of the judging process in this year especially as you say it was quite a quite a year I think for everybody everybody but amongst the judges we had personal losses you know my it was it was not a great year but the the the reading was was a saving grace actually and there were exciting things about the submissions for example we had all of these children's books that across a range of different types that were addressing historical moments that had never been spoken about that had not been recorded before and some authors making some really interesting choices for example um Cain Warriors by Alex Whittle in which he decided he took he took on board you know how um uh Toni Morrison says uh we must we must try to not look at our books through the white gaze and he decided to use the language he used he used language actual patois from Jamaica which was difficult to read but such a courageous choice you know and very challenging you know for the teenage writer um there was a lot of the queen of freedom which is shortlisted by Catherine Johnson also did the same thing but for a younger reader and so there's all kinds of exciting stuff like that there was a wealth of history and there was also a lot of picture books that I had not realized um uh had been created in in that kind of world where which addressed nonfiction it was just such an exciting list and the middle grade books huge it was a treasure trove that was really really difficult because there were a whole bunch of them that could have been prize winners in any other prize I think that's been the toughest part and I think it always seems to we always feel sorry for everything that is left out and not I shouldn't say sorry I feel terribly sad and sorrowed and sort of grief I have these books on my desk and I kind of caress them and hug them and you know and sort of want to hang on to them um but thank you both of you um we want to turn our attention now to the next step of the of today's um evening and um we will turn our attention to our two artists in residence of the year Amber Coker and routine Burton who have created the unique works that serve as the cellic prize trophies this year since to 2018 the prize commissions a British artist of color to create a work of art from this very same brief each year this year we have added a second residency for our children's and young adult prize of a children's illustrator another another group of people uh who are hugely talented enormous numbers of illustrators of color in in this country who are not represented at the way they deserve in the publishing industry so we hope the the second residency will give that a boost but before I ask them to come up I want to turn to a celebration of our 12 bookshop champions the 12 independent bookshops across the country who have supported a title each from our two shortlists they introduced the shortlist books and they tell us what they love most about them so over to you I'm Dan from Story Smith here in Bristol and we need to tell you just what a pleasure it's been recommending this incredible YA novel uh to our customers booksellers love nothing more than a book that asserts itself on the shelf and this book uh Danielle Joando's and the stars were burning brightly uh it does exactly that it resists the urge to talk down to its audience it's got a direct current story and it's just most importantly an effortless read you know a lesser book would take subjects like suicide grief familial upheaval and caricature of them but what Danielle's done here is treat them with respect with bigger with energy and for those reasons and for standing out on our shelves uh we wish Danielle all the luck for the Jallak prize uh Bristol is behind you fantastic book can't wait to see how you get on I'm Dirda from Five Leaves Bookshop and I had the pleasure of interviewing Kareen about her wonderful book when life gives you mangos I hope it wins the Jallak prize it's a great read and any seven to eleven year old will love the story of Clara it celebrates friendship family and community it's set in the Caribbean but anyone could enjoy us I loved us I'm sure you will I'm Vivian from Ewan Bookshop and very proud to be championing the Jallak prize with the first woman by Jennifer Nansabuga McCombie we are absolutely thrilled to be championing this book this is her second novel we did really really well with Kintu and this one is a winner it's Ugandan folklore with modern feminism and from Newham Bookshop we have our fingers crossed as do our customers and really hope that this one is a winner Katie Massies are we home yet nominated for this year's Jallak prize it is a memoir that takes us from Leeds at the turn of the last century to contemporary Jamaica it's a moving intimate portrait of a young woman trying to figure out her place in the world to understand her racial identity and to re-establish her relationships with her mother and it's clever it's funny it's beautifully written and uh we just wanted to wish Katie all the best from everybody here at October Book we love this book and we hope you will too I'm Ellen from Griffin Books and we love Inferno by Catherine Cho it's a really honest depiction of Catherine's struggle with postpartum psychosis which is a really underreported topic good luck Catherine We want to say a massive congratulations to Catherine Johnson for getting shortlisted for the Jallak prize on this historic fifth year so from everybody at the Hastings Bookshop and all of our customers we want to say well done Catherine what a great achievement for those of you who don't know about the book it is an amazing true adventure for children set around the slave revolt in Jamaica and focusing on the historic figure of Queen Nanny of the Maroons uh really can't recommend it enough and everyone at Hastings Bookshop just wants to say well done from most books an award-winning independent bookshop in Abingdon on Thames Oxfordshire we've been so happy to have customers back through our doors and to add to our excitement we are so thrilled to be supporting the Jallak prize this year and championing My Darling from the Lions by Rachel Lung we are so thrilled to be supporting this particular title because it heralds the emergence of a really important and wonderful new voice in poetry we love her poems because they force us to reflect on important issues such as cultural inheritance and sexual politics surrounding ideas of womanhood while written in a voice that we think is deeply personal and simply buzzes with life and heart we are so happy to be part of the Jallak prize this year and wish everyone shortness it a huge huge good luck thank you okay welcome back um and thank you to all our bookshop champions and also a shout out to pages of Hackney who have been working so very hard to champion Rumberland and this incredibly powerful collection of poetry and thematic for homesickness and now welcome to our two Jallak artists in residence for the year um the Jallak art residency was born in 2018 when the best-selling novelist Dorothy Coomson suggested that the winner received something beyond a check Dorothy sponsored that first trophy which was duly handed over to René-Edo Lodge from that initial idea the annual residency was born each year an artist of color is commissioned to create a unique work of art that serves as a trophy for the Jallak prize 2021 sees the expansion of the residency to a children's book illustrator to create a trophy for the new children's and young adult prize the artist in residence received the same brief each year so this year both our artists received the same brief and are free to interpret it as they wish in order to create art that addresses the ethos principles and goals of the Jallak prize the aim of the residency as with the Jallak prize is to shine a light on artists of color in contemporary Britain to recognize their creative output and to celebrate their work previous artists have included the ceramic artist Chris Bramble who drew on the decolonized ethos of the prize in the first year and created a defiant figure who as he said stands on the on our books that the colonize has burnt and hold up the stories that we continue to create Chris also provided the foundations for our brief 2019 trophy was created by the artist activist and writer Tashmia Owen who worked in resin battling a life threatening illness Owen worked on the sculpture in her kitchen creating a piece that embodies creative courage and resilience the 2020 trophy was created by the Tehran-born artist neda kuchaki yn ffordd in air drawing clay made necessary as the pandemic shut down anywhere that clay could be fired the sculpture eventually dried on her radiator this year's artists in residence are ruthene Burton an artist and illustrator living in london ruthene aren't a bachelor bachelor of arts degree in visual arts from abry swith university and is currently a mentee on the pathways into children's publishing program art illustration creativity have always been ruthene's first love she drew portraits at craft markets before entering computer games industry as an animator and an artist her illustration practice is based on her love of real paper paint and pastels with a touch of digital thrown in she likes to work in two distinct ways color pencil on paper followed by some post production digital post production or drawing digitally then coloring and texturing using multiple media such as photographs digitized fabrics and textures we will hear more about this work when we come to her and amber coker amber is a london artist and designer her art addresses contemporary themes and issues using traditional motifs and traverses a range of media and styles amber studied at st martins central st martins and has exhibited widely across the world she has executed a formidable array of commissions including the design for 40 meters by six meter carpet for the buckingham palace and stained glass library ceilings at dumfries house scotland she also has created interior designs and features of bespoke royal rolls Royce phantom standard and the phantom cube that's it's quite extraordinary um her design projects include amnesty international joy and pink floyd record cover logos for the young designer center designer center design center and three posters for the act up mark internet act up marking international aids day i'm so sorry for that stumble um amber's practice is extraordinary drawing from both traditional and contemporary elements media and styles so coming over to you um i'm going to start rustin with you um you've created this incredible piece of work would you hold it up so we could possibly take a look a closer look and this goes to the first winner of the children's and young adults prize that we will announce soon um how did you feel creating this art from a rather strange loose brief about ethics and ideas and principles of a literary prize um really excited when I when you told me I was going to be off of the brief um and then goodness I was I then proceeded to think okay how do I interpret this I've got to do something amazing um you know it's for the jalec prize so I was very excited and then very nervous and then thought start with just just sort of bring it back to the jalec prize itself read up about it go to the website look at what they're trying to achieve look at what the concepts and ideas are behind the jalec prize and really take it from there I mean I that's what I did I just thought take it back to the the basics the jalec prize itself and the same question to you Amber because you again I I know of your work from before I know of the cypresses and and the the incredible tile work um with the the geometric ones so I expected completely different something from you and you've created this extraordinary work with multiple forms and a bit of pure gold for those of you who are listening overseas especially India um in the middle of it oh well I think the most important thing was uh number one you gave me an excuse in a difficult time to celebrate um so I wanted this uh piece of artwork to have that feeling of celebration within within it so gold gold at the centre so for me gold is uh you know kind of represents uh perfection of matter then we have uh it's hugely hugely symbolic all of it I put some poetry in there from um Rita Pritam so she talks about the glimpse or jalec as well so it tied in with the uh idea of the prize and then there's uh it's surrounded by um stars uh which were all filled and based on maps with um uh from from different perspectives but um the united kingdom is in there in all of them so I really took your brief to heart I feel okay it's it's actually quite extraordinary because I'm not sure if you can see it at home um on on the camera would you lift that up please just let us know because it's the it's extraordinary in in the middle of these really complex works is very fine writing underlying um everything so this incredible images for both of you you've you've kind of incorporated text in beautiful interesting ways um now I want to ask both of you so I'm going to start with your routine one question will you tell us because frankly as as a writer um art is kind of a mysterious mystical magical process um how did you make it what what went can you give us a little glimpse into the techniques um okay so the process for making it I mean I always start with I mean a needing a concept needing something to ground the idea in so and um my initial ideas were around I wanted to show the magic of reading the magic that I remember from my childhood so that was very important to bring that in I thought about flying books and eventually the idea of the origami birds was actually given to me by my mentor on pathways Rachel Ball which is fabulous I was talking about my flying books with children riding on them and she said what about origami birds fantastic I ran with it and then that that um the idea of the origami birds meant that I have to practically just make them because if I'm going to draw them I've got to make them look properly like origami birds in the in the final artwork so I made various origami birds googled it um came up with pages on how to make them um picked one drew it at different angles you know so script lots and lots of scribbly roughs on paper that's my initial process that then um more scribbly roughs with the children riding different birds at different angles and then start with the composition so initially I'm just working completely on paper just doing lots of scribbles and lots of roughs trying to get an idea of the background an idea of what I'm trying to do um and then gradually bring it into the digital arena most of the color work was done digitally but lots of it is actually scanned in watercolor washes um watercolor washes of the children um of their that that is watercolor washes of the of the art um bring it back into the that gets scanned back in again so this is there's a kind of twoing and throwing between working on paper and paints and pencil and color pencil scanning in working digitally shifting colors until I reach a point where I think that'll do and it's magic so thank you for that thank you very much and I'm going to ask you the same question a little bit about the process I know we're we're we're getting the waves but um we have some time so would you tell us a little bit about how how did that come about the magical bits well I start with geometry so I have uh you have the um vertical line coming from heaven to earth the um eternal circle so that's initially where the drawing starts from that uh I did I tend to use natural pigments so there's a bit of grinding going on and mixing this with gum arabic and various other mediums the gold was quite a challenge um I did have a go at using a garlic juice and then decided I would back off um and then went for uh there's 23.5 carat gold leaf on there um which is a real joy to work with um it did fly around uh the space as I was working so what I tend to do is grab it and eat it because I think it's good for me I'm just hoping they didn't put any weird stuff in there maybe gum arabic but that's edible don't eat most of my paints though I wouldn't recommend it but um so more or less uh that's that's what was happening I use a particularly fine brush um it has a long history um it's a squirrel hair brush so it's slightly curved and I think the only places you can get them from at the moment are Pakistan and India of the particular type that I'm after um so it's uh yeah so it I mean I do love to work with natural mediums so thank you it's it's always been extraordinary to watch this this come together um and I think that's one of the the the last questions or perhaps one of the final questions I want for you is to get some sense of um what you feel about the the this residency about this link between writing and arts and in your case perhaps closer because you are an illustrator and hopefully we'll be doing lots of magical books that will come through to the children's and young adult prize for consideration but um so routine first to you so what I think about the yeah what did you how did you link what what do you make of the link should you know how you feel about developing it further where do you think we should go we always think that we should take advice from people who'd you know create work oh goodness um where would where should it go I think that um um I guess the brief was very open I mean it leaves the artist open to you know enormous interpretation um in terms of how you then take your brief how what you want to do with it I genuinely think that taking it back to the basics of what the Jalloc prize is about about the um the joy of reading um the hope that reading gives um and I think that the art the art residency exploring those things in art exploring those concepts exploring those hopes and dreams and I think is where I would take it I think I like that I think I think we need a bit of hopes and dreams at this point in our times over to you Amber for the same question um well for me it's quite beautiful um text and image I think it's a perfect marriage I mean it's a tradition uh of illustrating books and for me uh I you know I do enjoy poetry I enjoy reading so it's very so easy to be inspired by these magical words and what I really like is that you've opened this uh residency up so it's not just sculptural pieces it's uh you know works of art on paper and I would um I'm not really sure where you're going to go sound installation next I'm not you know spoken word it's like you know it's there's there's there's a huge amount of scope so it was a very beautiful brief particularly to be given a poem you know by yourself so that was lovely um for those of you wondering about the poem that Amber has incorporated it's um rytab ritham um my address or in Hindustani and Punjabi Merapatal which is which is about where artists may be found and where they live and as she says they can be found wherever there are free souls so um thank you for that um I think we're ready to um think about our winners now so I wanted to announce uh first the children's um young adult um children's and young adult prize it is the first award um a quick look at the short list but I wanted to go through what some of our judges had said um the guard picture alphabet Candy Girl had called it surprising and delightful window into another language when life gives you mangos Kiran called it a gorgeous tale that gets deeper and richer with each read and the stars were burning brightly Candy said Daniel Javando powerfully and unflinchingly tells the story that sends you to the depths then raises you up again queen of freedom Kiran called it a vivid heart-thumping call to arms eight pieces of silver Candy called it an astounding feat of astounding feat of writing and a fox called Herbert Kiran called it truly brilliant storytelling brimming with intent and feeling um I also want to um spend some time and I seem to have misplaced some of my paperwork so I'm going to do this a little bit off the top of my head but um anti-ematic for homesickness um Peter called it um an extraordinary work a powerhouse a tour de force are we home yet um Louise called it um Louise couldn't believe is this a debut how could it be so effortless uh the first woman words um literary giant were bandied about inferno searing burning absolutely truthful rainbow milk um oh this is um this involves Jeanette winter winterstone and acid was it was this appropriate I think I'm gonna I'm gonna hold off on it and my darling from the lions um by Rachel Lung which was commended for its honesty for its power and its insight um our winners are this time for the first time two winners the inaugural winner of the cellar children's and young adult prize patrice laurence for eight pieces of silver and for the fifth cellar prize jennifer nonsubiga mcumbi for the first woman if these works cannot be praised enough by the judges patrice for doing something and I quote no other writer is doing or even capable of um and of course as I said before the words a literary giant lives amongst us was used for jennifer over and over judges spoke about how much they admired these two works how much they learned from them about imagery form and language these were incredibly difficult decisions to make given the strength of the shortlist and at the end the choices were made with immense admiration respect and love for the craft art and the formidable level of mastery not only of the two winners but our entire shortlist so congratulations patrice jennifer I'm sorry I'm waving and going where is my champagne I wish we were here I can give a hug um and um over to you jennifer first to you um to hear from you this incredible potential future classic masterpiece tell us oh it's unbelievable you know first of all can I say thank you to to the judges but also thank you to um the people who started at this wonderful prize because so much is going on in the margins within the margins in England and in Britain and within those margins are so many things from all the way from Iraq to Iran to China to Saudi Arabia to Africa all that leaves in the margin and sometimes it's not shine and I like it's not shown on it such a prize goes in there and and pulls it out and shows it to the world so uh thank you to the people who came up with a fantastic idea of a prize for writers of colour and um thank you as well to my publisher one word and the theme uh that uh got this book prepared and believed enough in it to submit to submit it to the jelloch prize and can I say congratulations jelloch a prize on your fifth um year of existence and for having won a new prize as well because so far the first year you have achieved so much and have got so many voices and so many different books and worlds into the limelight I think that is fantastic so I'm really overjoyed and very happy to join and the former winners and also to join this world of jelloch a prize thank you so much and we have patrice do we have patrice online patrice you of course your first book was long listed for our first award back in 2016 so over to you congratulations welcome back thank you it's a real pleasure and I think I mean to echo a thing to Jennifer said it's such a joy that this prize started five years ago anyway and I know some of the struggles that you and nikesh had with it and to keep forwarding them ahead in such difficult times but to add the extra of doing the children with them and that was fun but also the fact that he listens and found where it is that um a book written for children teenagers could compete equally with a book for adults and to set up another one and I think you know that your five years anniversary has come after an incredibly difficult years of people of colour it's obviously the anniversary of George Floyd Floyd's murder with how they sort of hated against people of East Asia South East Asia that are heritage plus all this sort of later racism that's happening this sort of race report that's almost divided as a as a society so the fact that is this prize here this work that brings us all together from our various diasporas and gets these books out and he's absolutely fantastic independent booksellers who have done astonishing work in championing our books and supporting us in a way that is just you know when people talk about what was diversity they just talk about it even if these booksellers have actually done it in times that have been obviously quite difficult then so you know appreciate that so thank you Sonny thank you thank you thank you Kieran and Andy thank you Fent on the books library for putting the idea in my head by saying I've fed up with tragic lesions and that's thank you for my daughter for letting me play device her and the life and her friends nice and put them in books and thank you for that amazing Sophie there's a there's a hook and a sort of black space and wall just over there where that's going to go so thank you really appreciated oh that's really wonderful I think we have um some some time to hear from the judges who uh who can't be here hi I'm Yvonne Battlefelton if you haven't yet read Jennifer Nansabuga McCumbies the first woman you are in for a treat if you have then you probably already know what I'm about to say the first woman is a beautifully woven intricate novel weaving together family history traditions cultural norms history and more it's a story about beginnings and endings closure and possibilities friendship and identity family and war told with compassion humor and a strong narrative voice it is an extraordinary accomplishment the characters are complex their stories are full of regrets mistakes and hope by the time you finish this book you're full you're sustained by a well told story full of vivid imagery rich characters and lush language that just trips off the tongue the first woman is an invitation into a world of characters stories in place I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did hello I'm Kieramode Hargrave one of the judges of the inaugural Jalak Children and Young Adult Book Award and this was such a difficult decision and then again not at all we had so many exceptional entries that we had to whittle down into a long list and then into our incredible shortlist and finally of course we are lighted upon our truly exceptional winner eight pieces of silver by patrice laurence it's no secret that patrice is an exceptional storyteller but with eight pieces of silver I really think that she's outdone herself she's created something that is so absolutely of the moment speaking exactly to the teens that it is meant for but also I believe thanks to its themes of family and identity and growing up we'll endure for many many years to come and it's that quality that finally sets it apart that immediacy that urgency combined with that longevity that meant that we really couldn't pick anything else to be our winner in jennifer announce a boogam a combi we have a giant of literature living among us the first woman is of ambitious architecture intricately intertwined subplot and has magnetic tender vindictive generous also human characters whose journeys through the stories of the novel moved even me this block of stone known as me to tears my combi is a supremely gifted writer and the first woman is an astonishing accomplishment check it out for yourself and that's all from us um there's a glass of champagne because it wouldn't be a jollic prize without it so cheers enjoy celebrate cheers cheers congratulations to our winners