We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2012 SI Leeds Literary Prize as follows:

1st place: Minoli Salgado – A Little Dust on the Eyes

2nd place: Karen Onojaife - Borrowed Light

3rd place (tied): Emily Midorikawa - A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing, Jane Steele - Storybank: The Milkfarm Years

For extracts from the shortlisted writers and more information on the prize, go to www.sileedsliteraryprize.com and follow the prize on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Prize

The prize has been created, and is being run, by Soroptimist International of Leeds, in partnership with Ilkley Literature Festival and the highly regarded independent publishers, Peepal Tree Press.

The prize aims to act as a loudspeaker for Black and Asian women’s voices, and a platform to discover and celebrate exciting new talent, from a group largely under-represented on our bookshelves.

In the words of the prize’s patron, Bidisha: “The prize is a testament to the importance and manifest talent of women and a tribute to the gift of cultural, national, ethnic and linguistic diversity. The prize is important and necessary but, more than that, it is introduced to the world as an act of joy, happiness and the discovery of new work. Join us in celebration.”