joffe books prize 2022
And the 2022 Joffe Books Prize Winner is . . .
We were absolutely thrilled to present the winner of the Joffe Books Prize for crime writers of colour: Sam Genever!
The judges say: “Sam’s ambitious untitled crime thriller explores the violence and uncertainty of the South African apartheid with great depth and nuance. The writing style is at once lyrical, intriguing and intense, and the opening scene is quite powerfully dramatic. The setting is great, and the atmosphere is just electric.”
Sam was born in Cape Town in the 1970s, and experienced the effects of the Group Areas act and the State of Emergency during the early years of primary school. At the same time, playgrounds were terrorised by a serial killer dubbed the Station Strangler. The first victim found at her local train station.
She says, “Perhaps, looking back, it is no surprise that when I was in a panic in a global pandemic, I became a mystery writer, reimagining the first hysteria of my life. South Africa has an energy, humour and hustle that I can’t find anywhere else. Long may she live, long may her people prosper.” On receiving the Joffe Book Prize, she says: “All the glory goes to my kids who let me write during their naps.”
Sam’s first book is set to be released in autumn 2023. Keep an eye out for this dazzling debut!
Announcing the Joffe Books Prize shortlist 2022
We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour 2022! The second Joffe Books Prize received a flood of fantastic entrants. Completely anonymised for judging, the pool of scripts covered the gamut of gritty police procedurals to wrenching domestic suspense, evocative historical mysteries to page-turning cosies. Out of the longlist of twenty, five really stood out, forming our official shortlist:
FQ Yeoh, The Labelled Bones
Kingsley Pearson, Everyone Is Going To Know
Mai Le Dinh, The Smiling Mandarin
Rose Lorimer, Red Obsession
Sam Genever, Savage Territory
The winner will be announced in January 2023, so watch this space!
BRITAIN'S BIGGEST CRIME PRIZE SEARCHES FOR THE NEXT BESTSELLING WRITER OF COLOUR. [SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED]
The Joffe Books Prize is looking for a talented new crime fiction writer of colour, with one of the UK's largest literary prizes for the winner.
The judging panel includes award-winning author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite, and literary agent Ella Diamond Kahn.
The prize invites submissions from unagented authors from Black, Asian, Indigenous and minority ethnic backgrounds writing in crime fiction genres including electrifying psychological thrillers, cosy mysteries, gritty police procedurals, twisty chillers, unputdownable suspense mysteries and shocking domestic noirs.
The winner gets a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £1,000 cash prize, and a £25,000 audiobook offer from Audible for the first book.
The submission period has been extended to midnight on 31 October 2022.
HOW TO ENTER
Entrants are invited to submit their full-length manuscript, written in English, along with a synopsis of the book and author biography, to prize@joffebooks.com.
This prize is open to UK residents and British citizens (including those living abroad) only. The opening date for entries is 1 May 2022. The competition closes 31 October 2022, 23.59 p.m. GMT. No entries received outside this period will be accepted.
Read the full Terms & Conditions here.
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The winner receives £1,000, a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £25,000 audiobook offer from Audible for the first book, a two-year membership to the Society of Authors and an editorial consultation with one of the judges. Shortlistees will receive editorial feedback. Audible has committed to supporting the Joffe Books Prize, with a £25,000 audiobook deal for the winner of the prize for the next three years, making it one of the most significant prizes for crime fiction in the UK.
Northumberland-based Christie J. Newport won the inaugural prize in 2021, and her debut will be published this autumn. Of the 2021 shortlistees, three have gone on to receive agency representation and another will also be published by Joffe Books in 2022. Learn more about the shortlist and finalist.
THE JUDGES 2022
The 2022 judges are Oyinkan Braithwaite, Ella Diamond Kahn, Emma Grundy Haigh, Jasper Joffe and Kate Lyall Grant. The winner of the competition will be selected by these judges based on the quality and commercial potential of the work.
OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER: “It is great that Joffe Prize is dedicating resources to fulfil its commitment to diversify crime fiction. I am thrilled to be a part of the movement to help authors from minority groups achieve their dreams.”
ELLA DIAMOND KAHN, CO-FOUNDER OF THE DIAMOND KAHN & WOODS LITERARY AGENCY: “It’s really important to highlight and celebrate diverse voices in all genres of books in order to truly create a more inclusive publishing industry. The Joffe Books Prize is already proving to be a fantastic way of doing exactly that by discovering thrilling new crime writers. I’m so thrilled to have been invited to be one of the judges.”
EMMA GRUNDY HAIGH, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR AT JOFFE BOOKS: “I was overwhelmed by the outcomes of the first prize cycle — it’s been truly wonderful to see how the careers of the shortlistees are already starting to take shape. I’m elated that the Joffe Books Prize is entering its second year. The prize represents a small but vital step towards welcoming a far greater diversity of talent into crime fiction, amplifying underrepresented voices and continuing our commitment to widen access to publishing.”
AURELIE DE TROYER, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH CONTENT AT AUDIBLE: “Audible is delighted to be able to offer the winner of the Joffe Books Prize this additional opportunity. We are passionate believers in the power of storytelling and want those stories to come from the widest possible range of people. We hope that our support will help set the winner on the path to a sustainable long-term writing career and look forward to giving them a well-deserved platform in audio.”
ABOUT OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE
Oyinkan Braithwaite is the author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, which received international critical and popular acclaim, winning the 2019 LA Times Award for Best Crime Thriller, and being shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019, and the British Book Awards 2020 in two categories. It was also longlisted for the Booker Prize 2019, and the 2020 Dublin Literary Award. My Sister, the Serial Killer is being translated into 30 languages and has also been optioned for film. A graduate of Creative Writing and Law from Kingston University, she has worked as an assistant editor at a Nigerian publishing house and has freelanced as a writer and graphic designer since. She has had short stories published in anthologies and has also self-published work.
ABOUT ELLA DIAMOND KAHN
Ella Diamond Kahn is the co-founder of the Diamond Kahn & Woods Literary Agency. She began agenting at Andrew Nurnberg Associates, where she worked as an assistant literary agent for three years. She has long sought to build bridges for those wishing to get into publishing, serving as chair of the Society of Young Publishers in 2012 and chair of the Young Stationers’ Committee in 2018. She has regularly worked with London’s Writer Development Agency Spread the Word, and has also been involved with the WriteNow programme. She was included in the Bookseller’s list of Rising Stars in 2013, and was a winner of the London Book Fair Trailblazer Award 2016. Ella is a keen advocate of upmarket commercial fiction. She is passionate about finding and championing new voices, including those traditionally underrepresented in publishing.
ABOUT JOFFE BOOKS
Joffe Books is one of the UK’s leading independent publishers of excellent commercial fiction, especially crime and mystery fiction. Joffe Books is renowned for working closely with authors from across the world to create fantastic books and turning them into bestsellers. Since 2014, Joffe Books has published more than 500 books by over 70 authors, sold over 10 million books and been shortlisted for Independent Publisher of the Year three times. The publisher’s roster of award-winning authors and New York Times, USA Today and Amazon bestsellers includes Joy Ellis, Faith Martin, Robert Goddard, Rick Mofina, Volker Kutscher, Simon Brett and Stella Cameron.
While Joffe Books maintains open submissions for all authors, this competition is designed to offer an exclusive opportunity to Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers, who are particularly underrepresented in crime fiction publishing. Click here to go to our submissions page.