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Samantha Harvey and Kaliane Bradley on inaugural Climate Fiction Prize shortlist worth £10k
The Climate Fiction Prize announced its inaugural shortlist today featuring Prize winner Samantha Harvey and bestselling debut author Kaliane Bradley.
The new literary prize rewards the best novel-length work of fiction published in the UK engaging with the climate crisis and organisers called the five-strong shortlist “genre and global-spanning" reflecting strong themes of “resilience, motherhood, intersectionality and the emergence of ‘eerie’”.
Five novels have been chosen for the prize from the all-female longlist announced in November. The award is supported by Climate Spring, which aims to transform how the climate crisis is represented across media and culture.
Organisers said: "Shortlisted titles include consideration of climate justice, resilience, whole-world approaches and community, lightness and humour, diversity, intersectionality and, essentially, literary merit and enjoyment."
The Climate Fiction Prize 2024 Shortlist:
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Sceptre, Hodder)
- And So I Roar by Abi Daré (Sceptre, Hodder)
- Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen (Bloomsbury Circus)
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, PRH)
- The Morningside by Téa Obreht (W&N, Orion)
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The 2024 prizes judges are writer Madeleine Bunting (chair); climate justice activist and writer Tori Tsui, non-fiction author Nicola Chester and Andy Fryers, Hay Festival’s sustainability director.
Chester said: “Remaining true to the global scope, quality, strength and reach of the longlist, the chosen books prove the diversity of genres sought by the Prize. Together, they promote and celebrate the power and joy of storytelling, to show us how we might see ourselves anew in the light of the climate crisis, and how we might respond to and rise to its challenges with hope and inventiveness.”
Climate Spring founder and executive director Lucy Stone said: “The inaugural Climate Fiction Prize shortlist is a testament to the power of fiction in shaping how we see and respond to the climate crisis. At Climate Spring, we know that stories have the ability to engage audiences in ways that facts alone cannot – offering new perspectives, sparking imagination and making complex issues resonate on a personal level.”
She added: “The sheer breadth of narratives represented here, spanning genres and geographies, shows that climate storytelling is not a niche but an exciting and evolving space within literature. We’re proud to support the Climate Fiction Prize in amplifying and celebrating stories that challenge, inspire and stay with us long after the last page.”
The winner of the £10,000 prize, supported by Climate Spring, will be announced on 14th May 2025. A winner’s Q&A event will take place at Hay Festival on 30th May.
