Diverse Book Awards longlist announced

The Diverse Book Awards were set up by The Author School to reward positive steps to address the issue of lack of representation in the publishing industry.

'Through The Diverse Book Awards I have discovered new diverse books and authors that I hadn't previously been aware of,' said Abiola Bello, co-founder of The Author School and prize-winning author. 'I hope that the longlist inspires others to discover new talent too. The conversation around diversity in publishing has stepped up a level over recent months, at a time when we were shouting out for submissions to The Diverse Book Awards. The longlist represents the work that has been done already within publishing and showcases that it is truly is possible for diverse and inclusive books to be the "norm" rather than "exception". We hope that encouraging publishers and authors to write more diverse and inclusive books - and enter them into next year's awards - will be a positive step forward for the publishing industry in this country.'

The longlists are:

Children's Fiction: Son of the Circus by E. L. Norry (Scholastic); My Hair by Hannah Lee, illustrated by Allen Fatimaharan (Faber & Faber); Planet Omar Accidental Trouble Magnet by Zanib Mian, illustrated by Nasaya Mafaridik (Hodder); The Mysterious Melody by SP K-Mushambi, illustrated by Kudzai Gumbo (Naniso Media Ltd & Conscious Dreams Publishing); The Star Outside My Window by Onjali Q. Rauf (Orion Children's Books); Tin Boy by Steve Cole, illustrated by Oriol Vidal (Barrington Stoke); Toad Attack by Patrice Lawrence, illustrated by Becka Moor (Barrington Stoke)
 
Young Adult Fiction: All The Things We Never Said by Yasmin Rahman (Hot Key Books); Becoming Dinah by Kit De Waal (Orion Children's Books); Chinglish: An Almost Entirely True Story by Sue Cheung (Andersen Press); Oh My Gods by Alexandra Sheppard (Scholastic); The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (Hodder); The Boxer by Nikesh Shukla (Hodder); The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Hachette); The Tunnels Below by Nadine Wild-Palmer (Pushkin Children's)
 
Adult Fiction: A Book of Secrets by Kate Morrison (Jacaranda); Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh (Simon & Schuster); Everything You Ever Wanted by Luiza Sauma (Penguin/Viking); Golden Child by Claire Adam (Faber & Faber); Living The Dream by Isabelle Dupuy (Jacaranda); Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (Trapeze); The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (Penguin/Viking); This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik (Zaffre/Bonnier)

The longlist will be announced in September.

For full details see the website.

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