Whitehead shortlisted for Arthur C Clarke Award

Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winning The Underground Railroad (Fleet) has found itself a place on the shortlist for this year’s Arthur C Clarke Award for science fiction literature.

Whitehead’s book, a fantastical tale about a young slave making a bid for freedom in the antebellum South, sits alongside A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton), Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris), After Atlas by Emma Newman (Roc), Occupy Me by Tricia Sullivan (Gollancz) and Central Station by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing).    
 
Award director Tom Hunter said: “The novels on our shortlist this year are fascinatingly diverse, deeply imaginative and a great tribute to the memory of Sir Arthur as we celebrate the centenary year of his birth in 2017.”
 
Judging the prize are four members of the British Science Fiction Association – Una McCormack, Shana Worthen, Paul March-Russell and Andrew McKie, as well as Charles Christian of the Sci-Fi-London film festival.

The winner will be announced at a public award ceremony held in partnership with Foyles Bookshop, Charing Cross Road, on Thursday 27th July. The winner will be presented with a cheque for £2017.00 and the award itself, a commemorative engraved bookend.