It’s that time of the year again – we’re looking for volunteer readers to get involved in the SI Readers’ Choice Award 2026!
The SI Readers’ Choice Award sits alongside our main prize, and sees a team of volunteers read our six shortlisted manuscripts and choose their favourite. This not only gives our shortlisted writers another opportunity to win, but it also means they get the chance to receive feedback from real readers, which they can go on to use when editing their work.
As judging for the main prize is now underway, we’re looking for volunteers who would like to be part of the SI Readers’ Choice Award team and help select the 2026 winner.
The prize is awarded to unpublished fiction written by UK-based Black and Asian women and has been running since 2012. Our 2024 SI Readers’ Choice winner, Maeve Clarke, will see her award-winning novel, A Handful of Nutmeg, published by Fly on the Wall Press in June 2027.
What is involved?
Participating readers will be emailed the six shortlisted manuscripts towards the end of September and will be asked to vote for their preferred choice by mid-November. As manuscripts are unpublished, all reading happens electronically, either via a Kindle, tablet or computer. This means a lot of reading but you don’t need to read each manuscript from start to finish, we ask you read a minimum of 50 pages from each. The SI Readers’ Choice Award is there to reward the book that most engaged you.
How to sign up
If you would like to join our readers, please email us at audience@sileedsliteraryprize.com by Friday 4 September 2026 and we will be in touch with further details.
