2026 Prize

The SI Leeds Literary Prize is open to Black and Asian women writers aged 18 or over, based in the UK and writing fiction in English, and 2026 sees the 8th edition of this biennial award.

Judges

The judging panel for the 2026 prize is Irenosen Okojie, (head judge), Dr Kadija George Sesay, Arathi Menon and Rachel Yeoh.

Irenosen Okojie

is an award winning Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novels, Curandera, Butterfly Fish, short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, the Observer, the Guardian and the Huffington Post.  She co-presented the BBC’s Turn Up for The Books podcast, alongside Simon Savidge and Bastille frontman Dan Smith. Her work has been optioned for the screen. She has judged various literary prizes including the BBC National Short Story Award and the Dublin Literary Award. She was a judge for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Formerly the Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, she was awarded an MBE For Services to Literature in 2021 and selected as a visionary talent in The Next 25 Visionaries to Watch list. She is the director and founder of Black to the Future Festival and the chair of the 2026 Dylan Thomas Prize.

 

Dr Kadija George Sesay

whose research is on Black British Publishers and Pan-Africanism, is the Publications Manager for Inscribe/Peepal Tree, publisher of SABLE LitMag and editor of several anthologies. She has published poetry, short stories and essays in anthologies and a poetry collection, Irki (Peepal Tree, 2013). She has worked with the Prize since its inception in 2012. Kadija is currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar 2025-26.

 

 

Arathi Menon

is an author and columnist based in London. She completed her MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at the University of East Anglia. Her debut fiction book, Da, will be published by Fly on the Wall Press, UK and Picador, India.  Her previous books include a memoir titled Leaving Home with Half a Fridge, published by Pan Macmillan India. A middle-grade mystery novel, A Thud in the Middle of the Night, brought out by DC Books, Kerala, and later published by Yali Books, New York, under the title A Mystery at Lili Villa.  Her awards include the SI Leeds Literary Prize and Novel London. She has also been on numerous shortlists and longlists, including the BPA First Novel Award, Cinnamon Literary Award, Virginia Prize for Fiction, UA 100X100, FAB Prize, Ivan Juritz Prize and the Penguin WriteNow programme. She was part of a spoken word group installation at Tate Modern, London. Connect with her on Instagram @arathimenonauthor.

 

Rachel Yeoh

is an agent at the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency. She works with Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling authors and her list includes prize winning novelists such as Hanako Footman, Charlotte Runcie, Canwen Xu and Ony Ratsifandrihamanana. She previously ran the agency’s mentorship programme for underrepresented writers, was part of the Association of Author’s Agents EDI working group, and served as a judge for the TLC Pen Factor competition.