How to Disrupt, Build and Flourish
“A celebration of the book review as a genre, as well as a nuanced and complex literary and cultural conversation.”
How to Disrupt, Build and Flourish
Sunny Singh
The Review by WritersMosaic & Jhalak has been a long germinating idea. Its seeds were planted in frustrated discussions with fellow writers of the global majority about the lack of review spaces in Britain’s legacy press; how even when we are reviewed, we are rarely reviewed well. When we gather, a now familiar discontent arises: even writers whose books are reviewed in legacy press are rarely discussed in terms of ideas, form and craft.
Our books only seem to matter for what they can reveal about cultures and lives deemed strange or foreign. One particularly egregious instance stands out: a joyful novel about sisters that was dismissed for ‘not providing insights’ into the culture of the protagonists. As one fellow writer huffed, ‘imagine if we dismissed McEwen or Amis for this.’
This kind of reviewing is the result of something all too familiar: very few of us are commissioned to review books except in capacities of approved cultural informants translating exotica into tolerable – and for us, intolerable – explanations for an imaginary Home Counties reader. Furthermore, we are seldom considered for reviewing books even in our areas of expertise, perhaps because we are rarely seen as experts? Even more dangerously, we review white writers at our own risk as some take public offence at being thoughtfully, knowledgeably reviewed by us.
As the world emerges from a pandemic and when the short lived commitments made by the publishing industry in the wake of Black Lives Matter movements appear stalled, the need for a publication that showcases books by the writers of the global majority and that offers nuanced and complex reviews, views and provocations is of greater urgency than ever. The Jhalak team believes that the wider literary landscape cannot fully flourish without such an intervention.
After eight years of attempting to disrupt the publishing industry’s unrelenting structures of exclusion, we at Jhalak realise that we need to do more: find further methods of promoting great writing; build capacity for writers, reviewers, critics and readers; and, most importantly, create a space for essential conversations that must reach colleagues in the publishing industry as well as beyond it. Our ambition for The Review is to build an arena that not only showcases great contemporary writing that is daring and innovative in form, style and content but also creates a vital space for voicing essential ideas that may not find room elsewhere. We believe that centering these voices and discussions can enrich all writing and reading, all writers and readers, and not only those whose work is addressed and included here.
The Review builds on our ethos of working with partners, as we believe we achieve more when more of us push in the same direction. This is why we have joined forces with WritersMosaic, who have an unmatched track record of leading urgent and necessary literary and cultural discussions, and showcasing essential voices. WritersMosaic will host a freely accessible digital edition of this publication on their website, extending the reach and shelf-life of the featured writing.
Each of our genre curators is an extraordinary literary practitioner. Each selects books that address crucial, timely, urgent questions of ideas and form. They, in turn, commission peers who are masters of their chosen genres and bring knowledge, thought, and panache to their reviews. The result is a celebration of the book review as a genre, as well as a nuanced and complex literary and cultural conversation.
Since our inception, the Jhalak team has been dedicated to ensuring the greatest possible visibility for our community of writers and their work. This is why we work closely and extensively with communities of writers and readers along with partner institutions who share our ethos of solidarity, interconnectedness and literary excellence. This is why we are delighted to partner with The Bookseller whose support ensures that The Review shall reach key stakeholders in the industry. We also plan to make additional copies available through select bookshops and events.
On a personal note, although I have not been a judge since 2018, I read all submissions to the Jhalak Prize every year, simply for the joy. Each year, I am struck by the awe-inspiring range and excellence of the books submitted. And each year, I am heartbroken to find that very few receive the recognition and rewards they merit. I hope that The Review can also play a part in bringing literary excellence to a greater number of readers in Britain and beyond.
Finally, the creation of this publication has been an experience in learning new and unexpected ways of love, care and community. The Review is an unabashed, unapologetic celebration of contemporary thinking and writing by writers of the global majority, but its creation has also been a most unexpected gift to ourselves, to all involved. For this, I am immensely grateful.
© Sunny Singh
Sunny Singh
The Review by WritersMosaic & Jhalak has been a long germinating idea. Its seeds were planted in frustrated discussions with fellow writers of the global majority about the lack of review spaces in Britain’s legacy press; how even when we are reviewed, we are rarely reviewed well. When we gather, a now familiar discontent arises: even writers whose books are reviewed in legacy press are rarely discussed in terms of ideas, form and craft.
Our books only seem to matter for what they can reveal about cultures and lives deemed strange or foreign. One particularly egregious instance stands out: a joyful novel about sisters that was dismissed for ‘not providing insights’ into the culture of the protagonists. As one fellow writer huffed, ‘imagine if we dismissed McEwen or Amis for this.’
This kind of reviewing is the result of something all too familiar: very few of us are commissioned to review books except in capacities of approved cultural informants translating exotica into tolerable – and for us, intolerable – explanations for an imaginary Home Counties reader. Furthermore, we are seldom considered for reviewing books even in our areas of expertise, perhaps because we are rarely seen as experts? Even more dangerously, we review white writers at our own risk as some take public offence at being thoughtfully, knowledgeably reviewed by us.
As the world emerges from a pandemic and when the short lived commitments made by the publishing industry in the wake of Black Lives Matter movements appear stalled, the need for a publication that showcases books by the writers of the global majority and that offers nuanced and complex reviews, views and provocations is of greater urgency than ever. The Jhalak team believes that the wider literary landscape cannot fully flourish without such an intervention.
After eight years of attempting to disrupt the publishing industry’s unrelenting structures of exclusion, we at Jhalak realise that we need to do more: find further methods of promoting great writing; build capacity for writers, reviewers, critics and readers; and, most importantly, create a space for essential conversations that must reach colleagues in the publishing industry as well as beyond it. Our ambition for The Review is to build an arena that not only showcases great contemporary writing that is daring and innovative in form, style and content but also creates a vital space for voicing essential ideas that may not find room elsewhere. We believe that centering these voices and discussions can enrich all writing and reading, all writers and readers, and not only those whose work is addressed and included here.
The Review builds on our ethos of working with partners, as we believe we achieve more when more of us push in the same direction. This is why we have joined forces with WritersMosaic, who have an unmatched track record of leading urgent and necessary literary and cultural discussions, and showcasing essential voices. WritersMosaic will host a freely accessible digital edition of this publication on their website, extending the reach and shelf-life of the featured writing.
Each of our genre curators is an extraordinary literary practitioner. Each selects books that address crucial, timely, urgent questions of ideas and form. They, in turn, commission peers who are masters of their chosen genres and bring knowledge, thought, and panache to their reviews. The result is a celebration of the book review as a genre, as well as a nuanced and complex literary and cultural conversation.
Since our inception, the Jhalak team has been dedicated to ensuring the greatest possible visibility for our community of writers and their work. This is why we work closely and extensively with communities of writers and readers along with partner institutions who share our ethos of solidarity, interconnectedness and literary excellence. This is why we are delighted to partner with The Bookseller whose support ensures that The Review shall reach key stakeholders in the industry. We also plan to make additional copies available through select bookshops and events.
On a personal note, although I have not been a judge since 2018, I read all submissions to the Jhalak Prize every year, simply for the joy. Each year, I am struck by the awe-inspiring range and excellence of the books submitted. And each year, I am heartbroken to find that very few receive the recognition and rewards they merit. I hope that The Review can also play a part in bringing literary excellence to a greater number of readers in Britain and beyond.
Finally, the creation of this publication has been an experience in learning new and unexpected ways of love, care and community. The Review is an unabashed, unapologetic celebration of contemporary thinking and writing by writers of the global majority, but its creation has also been a most unexpected gift to ourselves, to all involved. For this, I am immensely grateful.
Sunny Singh
Sunny Singh’s debut novel Nani’s Book Of Suicides (2000) was followed by a work of non-fiction, Single In The City: The Independent Woman’s Handbook (2001). Her other novels include Krishna’s Eyes (2006) and Hotel Arcadia (2015), which was republished in 2024. In 2017, she published a study of the Indian film star Amitabh Bachchan for the BFI. Her latest book, A Bollywood State of Mind, a study in commercial Hindi cinema, was published in 2023. In 2016, she launched the Jhalak Prize for literature by writers of colour. She is also a founder of the Jhalak Foundation. Sunny is Professor of Creative Writing and Inclusion in the Arts at the London Metropolitan University (UK).© Sunny Singh