2026 Shortlisted Nominee
Entrepreneur Excellence Award
Selina Brown founded the Black British Book Festival in 2021 using her own savings, building it into Europe’s largest celebration of Black literature. A former librarian, she spent a decade championing books as tools for empowerment before creating BBBF. She was named FutureBook Leader of the Year in 2024, Trailblazer of the Year in 2025, and in 2026 became the inaugural recipient of the Queen’s Reading Room Medal. Selina is also a Penguin‑published children’s author whose debut picture book was the fastest‑selling of 2025. A single mother of three, she has built one of the UK’s most influential cultural platforms.