Ishiguro, Newland and Giles make Arthur C Clarke shortlist

Kazuo Ishiguro, Harry Josephine Giles and Courttia Newland are among the authors shortlisted for the 36th Arthur C Clarke Award for science fiction book of the year.

This year’s winner will be announced on 26th October at an award ceremony hosted by the Science Museum, London, in partnership with its exhibition “Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination”. The winner will receive a commemorative engraved bookend and prize money to the value of £2,022 – a tradition that sees the money rise annually from the year 2001 in memory of Clarke.

Nobel-winner Ishiguro is nominated this year for Klara and the Sun (Faber) and is joined on the list by Giles’ Deep Wheel Orcadia (Picador) and Newland’s A River Called Time (Canongate).

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (Tor UK), Wergen: The Alien Love War by Mercurio D Rivera (NewCon Press) and Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley (Solaris) also make the nominations.

Chair of judges Dr Andrew M Butler said: “I always view the shortlist as a snapshot of the richness and variety of the genre – space operas and dystopias, debutants and veterans, page turners that you can swallow whole and books that make you want to linger on every sentence. We’re slowly seeing a wider range of authors getting published in the British SF market, so we get to see a wider range of ways of reimagining the world. If science fiction is a toolbox, then we need to keep our tools sharp by approaching the material from different angles.”

This year’s prize is judged by Phoenix Alexander and Dr Nicole Devarenne from the Science Fiction Foundation, Crispin Black and Stark Holborn from the British Science Fiction Association and Nick Hubble of the Sci-Fi-London film festival. Butler represents the award directors in a non-voting role as chair of judges.

Award director Tom Hunter said: “I am in awe of the work of our judges this year, reading over 100 titles submitted by 39 publishing imprints and independent authors, and for leading us to this moment. I am also delighted for the opportunity to return both to a live ceremony this year and for it to be held at the Science Museum as one of their ’Science Fiction’ exhibition events.”

The award was originally established by a grant from Clarke with the aim of promoting science fiction in Britain and is currently administered by the Serendip Foundation, a voluntary organisation created to oversee the delivery and development of the award.