Travis Alabanza on the Jhalak Prize shortlist

18 April 2023

We’re delighted that Travis Alabanza’s glorious, vital memoir None of the Above has been shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize.

Travis is an award-winning writer, performer and theatre maker, and None of the Above is structured around seven things people have said to them over the course of their life about their gender identity: a variety of phrases, phrases that are ‘shouts and whispers, hugs and punches’, from ‘So when did you know?’ to ‘This ain’t a thing we do round here, son’. Through their intense, nuanced thinking about and on and through these phrases, they’ve created an eye-opening, fascinating book, about themselves and about the world at large. A world that often reacts uncomfortably with anything – and anyone – that won’t fit neatly into its categories.

See the full shortlist of the prize at bookshop.org. The winner is announced on 25 May.

Congratulations also to Derek Owusu, whose wonderful Losing the Plot was on the prize’s longlist.