Words of Colour Productions

06/08/2026

Theatre Peckham, Manchester Metropolitan University and Words of Colour have joined forces to launch The Alex Wheatle Witness Writing Project - a new scriptwriting programme for 10 Young Black* creatives aged 17–30 ready to develop their voice, sharpen their storytelling and explore writing for the stage.

Led by acclaimed theatre director Roy Alexander Weise MBE and guest playwright Roy Williams OBE, participants will explore character, dialogue and dramatic storytelling while developing their original script in a supportive and inspiring environment.

The programme culminates in a showcase as part of Theatre Peckham’s Young, Gifted & Black season, where a five-minute extract from each writer’s work will be brought to life by actors from the Young Peckham cohorts and presented with the support of a professional director.

Deadline: 10am on Monday 31st August

You can find out more and apply here: https://www.theatrepeckham.co.uk/the-alex-wheatle-witness-writing-project/

*Theatre Peckham define Black as people of Black Caribbean, Black African, Afro-Latinx, Afro-Arab and African-American heritage. This also includes people of mixed-Black heritage

25/06/2026

Driftwood, written by award-winning actor, acting teacher, activist and director Martina Marsha Laird, and directed by Justin Audibert, is an impressive, evocative and emotionally-charged debut play set in 1950s colonial Trinidad.

As Trinidad advances towards political independence, a downtown Port of Spain gentlemen’s club becomes entangled in a different kind of custody and identity battle where dreams are dashed and secrets are laid bare.

Driftwood, Laird’s debut play, was runner up in the Verity Bargate Awards 2024 and transferred to Kiln Theatre following a world premiere at Royal Shakespeare Company's The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon. 

The performances by Imhangbe (Diamond), Cat White (Ruby), Shane David-Joseph (Seldom), Roger Ringrose (Mansion) and Ziggy Heath (Tom) are riveting but acting veteran Ellen Thomas is at the top of her game as Pearl, a feisty, self-protective gatekeeper of a white-owned gentleman’s club and a mother who faces a reckoning rooted in the misogynoir black women face.

Laird’s dialogue crackles with fire and historical richness and you only have until 4th July 2026 to experience this for yourself during its limited run at the Kiln.

12/05/2026

Our friend, ally and collaborator, award-winning civil rights lawyer Marcia Willis Stewart KC (Hon) has recently been appointed as a trustee of , to support equity, justice and opportunity within the music and creative industries - which is sorely needed.

Image - Left to right: Camilla George (artist, TW Trustee) Marcia Willis Stewart (TW Trustee) Janine Irons OBE (TW Co-founder & CEO) Tove Okunniwa (TW Chair)

Tomorrow’s Warriors has shaped UK jazz for the past 35 years and is looking to work with Marcia to strengthen the charity's focus on women in leadership and its deep commitment to equity of opportunity for future generations of talent - particularly Black and female musicians and those from underrepresented communities.

Excited to see the developments.

21/04/2026

16/04/2026

and Words of Colour announce the launch of Alex Wheatle Day on Monday 4th May 2026 (5pm-8.30pm) to celebrate the literary legacy of the multi-award-winning author who died on 16th March 2025.

The inaugural Alex Wheatle Day, which will be an annual event, includes a staged adaptation of 's YA novella WITNESS written by Theatre Peckham’s .mclean and writer David Fielding. 

Commissioned by Alex before he passed away, the play explores courage, loyalty and the price of telling the truth against a backdrop of knife crime.

There'll be a post-show panel featuring award-winning writer and poet , actors (who played Alex) and (who played Alex’s best friend Valin) in Small Axe, Steve McQueen’s anthology film series, and , film and TV industry executive.

Alex Wheatle, aka the ‘Brixton Bard’, wrote 21 books, including a novella, and won the London Arts Board Writers Prize 2000 for Brixton Rock, the Guardian’s Children’s Fiction Award in 2016 and the Renaissance Quiz Writers’ Choice Award for Crongton Knights.

The BBC’s adaptation of Crongton, written by  and directed by , won the RTS Award for Best Children's Programme 2026 and has been nominated for a BAFTA Television Award 2026.

Alex Wheatle Day will also host a foyer exhibition on Alex’s legacy, a special reggae, dub, Lovers Rock and grime set by DJ Hybrid J, alongside food stalls and raffles for prizes, including Alex’s award-winning Crongton book series donated by .

18/03/2026

‘Powerful Acts of Creative Resistance’

Jhalak Prize Announces Longlists for its 10th Year

The Jhalak Prize announced its longlists for the Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize, the Jhalak Poetry Prize and the Jhalak Prose Prize. The longlists mark a decade of the Jhalak Prize and exemplify the excellence that the Prize seeks to celebrate.

In 10 years, the Jhalak Prize has grown from a single all-encompassing prize to a portfolio of three awards: the Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize, the Jhalak Poetry Prize and the Jhalak Prose Prize, all celebrating the creativity, imagination and scholarly achievements of writers of colour in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Prize director Sunny Singh commented: ‘The past decade of the Jhalak Prize is a testament to the range and quality of work by writers of colour in Britain, and their commitment and determination to publish and reach readers.

Jacob Ross, the first ever Jhalak Prize winner (and judge this year) described each book on the 2026 Jhalak Prize longlists as a powerful act of creative resistance.

In robust and passionate discussions, the judges found it challenging to select only twelve books for each longlist, describing the process as ‘an honour and heartache.’

The Jhalak Prize is an act of love, of family-making with our fellow authors, and I am incredibly proud of the writers who have become part of the Jhalak family as long and shortlisted authors, winners and judges.’

The Judges for the Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize 2026 are authors Sita Brahmachari, Lanisha Butterfield and Christine Pillainayagam. Brahmachari was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize in 2018. Butterfield was shortlisted for Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize in 2025 and Pillainayagam in 2023.

The Judges for the Jhalak Poetry Prize 2026 are poets Romalyn Ante, Nikita Gill and Kadija (George) Sesay. Ante was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize in 2021.

The Judges for the Jhalak Prose Prize 2026 are authors Catherine Johnson, Ami Rao and Jacob Ross. Johnson was a founding judge and returned for the Prize’s 10th anniversary. Rao was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize in 2024. Ross won the inaugural Jhalak Prize for his novel Bone Readers (Peepal Tree Press).

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JHALAK PRIZE LONGLISTS 2026

Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize

A Taste of Home, Maryam Hassan, Anna Wilson (Hodder Children’s Books)
Augmented, Kenechi Udogu (Faber Books)

Girl, Ultra-Processed, Amara Sage (Faber)

How to Catch an Idea, Forest Xiao (Orchard Books)

I Can’t Even Think Straight,Dean Atta (Hodder Children’s Books)

My Name is Samim, Fidan Meikle (Kelpies)

My Soul, A Shining Tree,Jamila Gavin (Farshore)

Roar, Manjeet Mann (Penguin Books)

Songs for Ghosts, Clara Kumagai (Zephyr)

Supa Nova, Chanté Timothy (Nosy Crow)

The Shell Keepers, Truly Johnston (Chicken House)

Wild Journey, A.M. Dassu, illustrated by Joe Lillington (Zephyr)

Jhalak Poetry Prize

Dante’s Inferno, Lorna Goodison (Carcanet)

Foretokens, Sarah Howe (Chatto & Windus)

Fragments, Tara Singh (Five Leaves)

Heirloom, Catherine-Esther Cowie (Carcanet)

Holy Boys, Andrés N. Ordorica (Polygon)

I Sing to the Greenhearts,Maggie Harris (Seren)

Leaning Against Time, SuAndi (Carcanet Press)

My Dearest Friend, Lady Red Ego (Verve)

Nature Matters, (eds) Mona Arshi & Karen McCarthy Woolf (Faber)

Pulling Faces, Zakariye (Little Betty)

The New Carthaginians, Nick Makoha (Penguin)

Why I am not a Bus Driver, Ashley Hickson-Lovence (Bad Betty Press)

Jhalak Prose Prize

Act Normal: Joy and Despair in Postcolonial Britain, Pete Kalu (Hope Road)

Before We Hit the Ground, Selali Fiamanya, (BoroughPress)

Call Me Ishmaelle, Xiaolu Guo (Vintage)

I Want to Talk to You, Diana Evans (Chatto & Windus)

The South, Tash Aw (Fourth Estate)

Love Forms, Claire Adam (Faber)

Saraswati, Gurnaik Johal (Serpent’s Tail)

The Science of Racism, Keon West (Picador books)

Foreign Fruit, Katie Goh (Canongate Books)

Minority Rule: Culture Wars and the Rentier Class: Adventures in the Culture War, Ash Sarkar (Bloomsbury Publishing UK)

Hail Mary, Funmi Fetto (Magpie Books)

Shamiso, Brian Chikwava (Canongate)