Congratulations to the winners of the Jhalak Prize 2023! Travis Alabanza for None of the Above and Danielle Jawando for When Our Worlds Collided.

TRAVIS ALABANZA is a writer, performer and theatre maker. Their theatre shows Burgerz, Overflow and Sound of The Underground were all received with critical acclaim, winning Total Theatre Award at Edinburgh Fringe, streaming to over 22 countries and being included in over 20 syllabuses. They have given talks on race and gender across the world including at Harvard, Oxford and Bristol - with their impact in the LGBT+ community being noted in the Forbes 30 under 30 list, Dazed 100 and a recent Attitude magazine 100 list.


DANIELLE JAWANDO is an author, screenwriter and Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her debut YA novel, And the Stars Were Burning Brightly, won best senior  novel in the Great Reads Award and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the YA Book Prize, the Jhalak Children's & YA Prize, the Branford Boase Award and was longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, the UKLA Book Awards and the Amazing Book Awards. Her other publications include the non-fiction children's book Maya Angelou (Little Guides to Great Lives), the short stories Paradise 703 (long-listed for the Finishing Line Press Award) and The Deerstalker (selected as one of six finalists for the We Need Diverse Books short story competition), as well as several short plays performed in Manchester and London. Danielle has also worked on Coronation Street as a storyline writer.