A cozy, Manila-set young-adult mystery titled “Isabelle Gomez Is Innocent, She Swears!” has won the 2026 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color award. Its author is Jackie Yap, who calls herself a “neurodivergent Australian-born, Malaysian-Chinese-Filipina emerging writer on Gadigal Country (Sydney), Australia.”
Administered by the worldwide organization Sisters in Crime, this annual commendation is intended to promote “an emerging female or male writer of color.” It was established in 2014 and named for Eleanor Taylor Bland, the much-acclaimed Black author of the police detective Marti McAllister series. In addition to any psychological boost it can give an aspiring fictionist, this prize includes a $2,000 grant to further the recipient’s writing career.
Yap’s victorious tale is described as “part-murder mystery, part-fish-out-of-water, part coming-of-age—with universal themes of humor, heart, and belonging.” In a press release, she goes on to say it’s a “love letter to diaspora kids everywhere—to those who live in the liminal space between worlds, still discovering who they are, where they fit, and what ‘home’ truly means. I hope for Izzy Gomez to become a fresh, modern-day Filipina-Aussie Nancy Drew for readers everywhere, offering a protagonist who reflects their experiences against the backdrop of a (cozy) YA murder mystery.”
In addition to Yap, Sisters in Crime named five other would-be crime writers as runners-up in this contest. They are Uju Asika of London, England; Billie Hanson-Dupree of Oakland, California; Nina Michiko Tam of Houston, Texas; D.S. Mori of Orange County, California; and DeAnna Yvette of Chicago, Illinois.
Congratulations to all participants in this year’s competition!
Wednesday, June 03, 2026
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