The judges for The Diverse Book Awards 2020

'There is a wealth of great talent out there but many of them face real barriers to getting their work seen and published. The Diverse Book Awards will remove those barriers' 

-  Rob Green, editor of Pen & Inc

From top left:

Rebekah Banda—Fourteen years old

Alicia Cruz—Fifteen years old

Luisa Maria—Hashtag BLAK Commissioning Editor

Samantha Williams—Founder of This Is Book Love

Rob Green—Editor of Pen & Inc 

Caroline Fielding—Chair of the CILIP Youth Libraries Group London committee

* Rebekah and Alicia will only be judging the children's and YA entries

Hi! I'm Rebekah. I'm 14 years old and from South East London. I go to Harris Girls Academy East Dulwich. I enjoy reading crime and mystery books. My fav book is Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‎.

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Hey I'm Alicia. I'm 15 years old and from North West London. I go to Hendon School. My favourite book at the moment is the Model Undercover series by Carina Axelsson. 

I'm Luisa! I'm a Creative Writing and English Literature graduate from Colombia. Some of my favourite books of recent years are With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova, and Juno Dawson’s London Trilogy.  Books should give everyone the chance to see themselves represented in the page as protagonists and heroes.

Hello I'm Samantha. I'm the founder of the award-wining 

BookLove Carnival. I travel the county taking multicultural and bilingual books and content into schools, events and festivals nationwide. My favourite authors are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Maya Angelou, Terri McMillan and Rohinton Mistry.  

Hi! I'm Rob and I'm the editor of Pen&inc. I'm married, with two primary-aged children and I live in South London. I have been a journalist for 20 years, working on a number of newspapers and magazines. I launched Pen&inc. in Spring 2020. My favourite book is All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. 

I'm Caroline! I'm the Chair of the CILIP Youth Libraries Group London committee and currently part time Librarian in a Special Secondary School and full time Mum to 5 year old Bea. I read a lot of children's and Young Adult books. I'm passionate about sharing brilliant diverse titles with the teens I works with, as well as more widely through the YLG network, Twitter, & as UK Editor of  TeenLibrarian.co.uk. Choosing a favourite book is nearly impossible/ My favourite author since about the age of 13 is Terry Pratchett, but more recently I have probably most recommended Planet Omar by Zanib Mian & The Deepest Breath by Meg Grehan (cheaty answer, sorry)!