We’re delighted to announce the judging panel for the 2020 SI Leeds Literary Prize as follows:
Malika Booker
Niki Chang
Kadija George
Yvonne Singh (photo by Linda Nylind)
Malika Booker is an international writer whose work is steeped in anthropological research methodology and rooted in storytelling. Her writing spans poetry, theatre, monologue, installation, and education. She is the founder of the writers collective, Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. Malika was the inaugural poet in residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company, was Chair of the Forward Prize for Poetry in 2016, she lectures at Manchester Metropolitan University and is currently chair of judges for the international Manchester Poetry Prize.
Niki Chang is a literary agent at The Good Literary Agency. She works with a wide range of writers of both literary and commercial fiction and non-fiction from under-represented backgrounds. Prior to TGLA she worked at Aitken Alexander Associates. Niki Chang will be chair of judges for the 2020 Prize.
Kadija George is a literary activist of Sierra Leonean descent. In 2001 she founded SABLE LitMag. She has judged several writing competitions including: SAGA (new Black British novelists); Young Black Achievers Award (Cambridge University Creative Writing); Kasa-Kasa (Ghana Nottingham Link); John La Rose Short Story competition; Non-Fiction competition for the Pan African Literary Forum; Kwani Prize 2013 (Kenya) and the 2014 SI Prize. She was the Chair of judges for the 2016 SI Leeds Literary Prize. She is currently an AHRC/TECHNE scholarship student, researching Black British Publishers at Brighton University.
Yvonne Singh is a journalist, writer and editor. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Observer, The Mirror, The London Evening Standard and the BBC, and she was a contributor to the acclaimed anthology Know Your Place and the renowned Southword Literary Journal. She was staff at The Guardian for many years and is on the editorial team of Middle East Eye and Pree, the literary journal of Caribbean Writing. She was awarded second prize at the SI Leeds Literary Prize awards 2018.
