Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Author rejects prize from 'anti-migrant' newspaper

Having won the £5,000 John Llewellyn Rhys award for his debut, The Impressionist, Kunzru rejected it because of what he called the the papers' consistent "hostility towards black and Asian British people".

He claimed the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, which sponsors the prize, both "pursue an editorial policy of vilifying and demonising refugees and asylum-seekers ... As the child of an immigrant, I am only too aware of the poisonous effect of the Mail's editorial line. The atmosphere of prejudice it fosters translates into violence, and I have no wish to profit from it."