My involvement in the Writers of Colour literary award project has been to approach those with an interest in Black literature to be on the panel of judges. It was really important to me that we selected the right people. From their bios, I think we did.

I have a lifelong interest in African Diasporic cultures, and I love the African American literary/artistic traditions of call and response (exemplified in the church sermon) and improvisation (illustrated in jazz). I am fascinated by the way in which African American texts speak to each other through thematic and structural intertextual repetition with variation.  I also enjoy literature that emanates from African American folk culture and that escapes conventional definitions of genre (such as Ntozake Shange’s Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo).

I am less familiar with Black British literary traditions, however, so I am really excited to find out about the talent that is closer to home and that I am hoping this competition will reveal. I don’t envy the judges, though, as I think that the many communities that make up Black Britain defy singular categorisation.  Their diversity is seen in a number of folk cultural influences in their literature (e.g. Anansi- and Ifá-inspired text), the plurality of settings (e.g. rural Jamaica and urban England in some novels and urban Nigeria and rural Scotland in others), and the myriad styles and genres (e.g. post-colonial lit, dub poetry, and verse fiction). Black British literature seems all the more elusive because of the continuous migrations within some Black communities (e.g. from Nigeria to the UK, to the US and back again). I’m looking forward to seeing how all of this is reflected in the manuscripts submitted.

Reading the debut novels of Imbolo Mbue (Behold the Dreamers), Louise Meriwether (Daddy was a Number Runner), and Louise Hare (This Lovely City) was one of my lockdown highlights. I have also discovered the merits of the audiobook through actor Adjoa Andoh’s beautiful narration of Abi Daré’s The Girl with the Louding Voice.  

This year I am looking forward to reading more Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water and Françoise Ega’s Lettres à une Noire, in which the narrator speaks to Carolina Maria de Jesus, author of Quarto de Despejo.  

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Dr. Florence Marfo holds a BA in French from Goldsmiths, University of London and a PhD in Afro-Brazilian and African American Text from Bristol University.  Programme Area Manager for Languages. She is the podcast interviewer for Language of the Month (featured podcast: Marco Macchitella - Deputy Principal and contributor to Italian Language of the Month) and the Prize. As part of the Prize 2022, she will be interviewing Abi Daré, Malik Al Nasir, Louise Hare, co-authors of Junglistand several others. 

I am Naomi Gennery and am a UK based illustrator and graphic designer. I take a lot of my inspiration from zines, diy culture and a “do it yourself” ethos. I like to create mixed media work exploring and blending identity, and modern life. Throughout my work I like to tell a story, connect and engage with people, and enjoy using art as a form of social commentary.

My work is rooted in social issues, political issues and people! I like exploring where art, design, people and culture all meet and merge. I love to deal with big subjects through my work in the hope that people either see their thoughts, ideas or themselves reflected in it. I like to amplify voices that aren't often represented I think there's something so powerful in seeing yourself reflected in art. Having alternative media is so important to me and my illustration work allows me to have a voice and input into these important conversations.'

Dr Emily Zobel Marshall is a Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature at the School of Cultural Studies at Leeds Beckett University. She teaches courses on African-American, Caribbean, African and Black British literature. Her research specialisms are Caribbean literature and Caribbean carnival cultures. She is an expert on the trickster figure in the folklore, oral cultures and literature of the African Diaspora and has published widely in these fields. She has also established a Caribbean Carnival Cultures research platform and network that aims to bring the critical, creative, academic and artistic aspects of carnival into dialogue with one another. 

Emily hosts and chairs literary events and has organised international conferences on the literature and cultures of the African diaspora. She is a regular contributor to BBC radio discussions on racial politics and Caribbean culture. She is also active in consulting organisations and institutions on issues of diversity and inclusion. Her books focus on the role of the trickster in Caribbean and African American cultures; her first book, Anansi’s Journey: A Story of Jamaican Cultural Resistance (2012) was published by the University of the West Indies Press and her second book, American Trickster: Trauma Tradition and Brer Rabbit, was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2019. 

 Emily develops creative work alongside her academic writing. She has had poems published in the Peepal Tree Press Inscribe Anthology (2019), Magma (‘The Loss’, Issue 75, 2019), Smoke Magazine (Issue 67, 2020) and The Caribbean Writer (Vol 32, 2020). She is Vice Chair of the David Oluwale Memorial Association, a charity committed to fighting racism and homelessness, and a Creative Associate of the Geraldine Connor Foundation. 

Dr. Zobel Marshall was a prize judge in 2021.