The London Library is delighted to announce the newest cohort of its flagship Emerging Writers Programme, which supports early-career writers and is now entering its fifth year. 
 
40 participants were selected from a field of almost 1,400 applicants, a record-breaking number, by a panel of judges comprising, poet and playwright Caroline Bird, screenwriter and playwright Moira Buffini, non-fiction writer Travis Elborough, novelist and short story writer Zoe Gilbert, novelist Ayisha Malik, and literary agents at Aitken Alexander Emma Paterson and Chris Wellbelove.  
 
The emerging writers hail from across the UK, from Edinburgh to Brighton, including Northern Ireland and Wales, spanning an age range from early twenties to early seventies. This year’s cohort is working on a diverse array of projects, taking us from Iraq to Hong Kong, India to Ukraine, gothic fairytales to murder mystery, Haitian revolution sci-fi to time-travelling ninjas, cheese, wine, lotteries and luxury, cannibalism, hirsutism, and kleptomania. Also, for the first time, the programme welcomes two new genres: food writing and translation.  
 
Of the 40 writers, nine are working on non-fiction, including five memoirs and three food writing projects. Eight are novelists, seven are writing for stage/screen, five are poets, five are writing for children or YA, four are short story writers and two are working on translations 
 
The London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme is geared towards supporting writers who have not yet published a full-length work of fiction, non-fiction, collection of poems, or had a full-length work professionally produced for stage/screen. The 2023/24 Programme will run from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024.  
 
Participants benefit from one year’s free membership of The London Library alongside a programme of writing development and networking opportunities, peer support, and guidance. Membership to The London Library includes: access to its collection of around one million books and periodicals (almost all of which can be borrowed), a vast eLibrary, atmospheric workspaces in a beautiful building, a members suite, nationwide postal loans, and discounted tickets to the Library’s popular public events programme. The cohort will be following in the footsteps of the many writers, readers and thinkers who have made the Library their home for over 180 years.  
 
Claire Berliner, Head of Programmes said: ‘We were blown away by the vast number and astonishing quality of the applications we received and the judges had a very hard time making their selection. We are delighted to welcome this talented and diverse cohort of writers to the Library and excited to see where they take their ideas and imagination while on the Programme.’ 
 
 Philip Marshall, Director of The London Library said: ‘For over 180 years, The London Library has inspired and supported writers at all stages of their careers. We are delighted to have received a record-breaking near 1,400 applications in this our fifth year of the Emerging Writers Programme, showing just how valuable the Library and the programme is to aspiring writers of all genres and disciplines. We look forward to welcoming forty new writers into our literary community.’

Find out more about our new Emerging Writers cohort

Congratulations to Travis Alabanza and Danielle Jawando who have won the 2023 Jhalak prize celebrating books by British/British resident BAME writers. 

Travis Alabanza, None of the Above, winner of the Jhalak Prize is a writer, performer and theatre maker. Danielle Jawando, When our Worlds Collided, winner of the Children's & YA Jhalak Prize, is an author, screenwriter and Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Judges described None of the Above, Alabanza’s memoir about being genderqueer, as ‘desperately important’, and said every teenager should read Jawando’s young adult novel When Our Worlds Collided. 

First awarded in March 2017, the Jhalak Prize and its new sister award Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize, founded in 2020, seek to celebrate books by British/British resident BAME writers. Recognising some extraordinary talent over the last five years, previous winners have included Jacob Ross, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Guy Gunaratne, Johny Pitts, Patrice Lawrence and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. 

We were delighted to celebrate the prize with an event at The London Library in May featuring Jhalak Prize judge Haleh Agar and Jhalak Children's & Young Adult Prize judge Maisie Chan in conversation with Yassmin Abdel-Magied, and readings from some of the shortlisted authors. Find out more here.

We look forward to welcoming the winners to the Library with two year's complimentary membership and a year's membership for the shortlist. 

This is part of an ongoing partnership between the Jhalak Prize and The London Library. 

You can find information on the Jhalak Prize here.