Edmonton writer Premee Mohamed among shortlisted authors for 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction
The $25K US prize is awarded a writer for a work of imaginative fiction
Edmonton writer Premee Mohamed is among the shortlisted authors of the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for fiction.
In operation since 2022, the $25,000 US (approx. $34,212.50 Cdn) prize is awarded to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction.
Mohamed is recognized for her novel The Siege of Burning Grass which tells the story of two empires, Varkal and Med'ariz that have always been at war, and the pacifist resistance founder who must make difficult choices to try and stop the fighting.
Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction writer. Her series Beneath the Rising received nominations for the Crawford Award, British Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards and Aurora Awards. Her book The Annual Migration of Clouds won the 2022 Aurora Award for best novella. Her other books include The Butcher of the Forest and No One Will Come Back for Us.
The complete list of nominees are:
- The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
- The Skin and its Girl by Sarah Cypher
- It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey
- Sift by Alissa Hattman
- The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson
- Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson
- The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed
- Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
- Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo
The 10 nominees were chosen by the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation after a public nomination process. The winner will be decided by Canadian writers Margaret Atwood and Omar El Akkad along with American authors Megan Giddings, Ken Liu and Carmen Maria Machado.
The prize was started in Le Guin's name, who died on Jan. 22, 2018 at the age of 88 and is known for her imaginative, award-winning fantasy and science fiction. She published more than 20 novels, 10 story collections and a dozen books of poetry, as well as essays, children's books, a screenplay and more. Her novels The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed both won the Hugo and Nebula Awards — top science fiction prizes — making Le Guin the first writer to win both awards twice for best novel. In 2014, she received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
The winner will be announced on Oct. 21, 2024, Le Guin's birthday.
Last year's winner was Canadian Rebecca Campbell for her novella Arboreality.
