Climate Fiction Prize Announces 2026 Shortlist

By LoveReading | 18th March 2026

Six books have been shortlisted for the 2026 Climate Fiction Prize, including Dusk by Robbie Arnott which LoveReading's Liz Robinson declared a Star Book: "Stark and painful yet deeply and beautifully detailed, this novel amplifies the difficulties of survival in the wilderness, whether human or animal."

What is the Climate Fiction Prize?

The Climate Fiction Prize is a literary prize that will celebrate the most inspiring novels tackling the climate crisis.

It has been launched to reward and showcase powerful stories that depict the human response to climate change; how it impacts us and how society responds.

For societies to fully grasp the climate change threat and to embrace its solutions, we need better stories. It’s not enough for audiences to know about climate change; they need to see an uncertain future and understand that change is urgent but possible.

Many of us already see tackling climate as important; but we don’t always know how we should respond. Fiction can help us imagine what change can look like.

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’”.

This year’s judging panel is chaired by Arifa Akbar, chief theatre critic at the Guardian and former literary editor of the Independent. She is joined by award-winning novelists Kit de Waal and Jessie Greengrass, as well as Dr Friederike Otto, professor in climate science at Imperial College London and co-founder of the World Weather Attribution initiative, and Simon Savidge, a broadcaster and presenter with a YouTube channel called Savidge Reads.

The Climate Fiction Prize Shortlist 2026

Endling by Maria Reva

The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien

Dusk by Robbie Arnott

The Tiger’s Share by Keshava Guha

Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan

Hum by Helen Phillips

Set in the domestic sphere in increasingly artificial or altered worlds, Hum and Awake in the Floating City “explore community, compassion and what it is that makes us human”, the judges said, while the political The Tiger’s Share “vividly depicts how colonialism and patriarchal structures fuel the climate crisis”.

The Book of Records “humanises climate migration through the prism of finding community amongst oppression”, they said, while the “prescient” Endling “looks at current competing crises, stressing the interconnectedness between conflict and climate”. Western adventure Dusk, meanwhile, is described as a “remarkable parable about finding love and redemption in healing our relationship with the natural world”.

The judges said: “There is a striking, repeated focus on community response and familial relationships as a means of survival and finding agency. Representing authors from across the world, where the effects of the climate crisis and dual crises are being felt close to home, including India, Ukraine, America, China and Tasmania, the list explores resilience and humour in the face of despair as well as rage at injustice.”

Last year’s inaugural winner of the prize was Abi Daré for And So I Roar, which is set in Nigeria and focuses on the intersectionality of climate and social justice, and the parallels between liberating girls, women and nature. This year’s winner will be announced on 27th May, followed by an event at Hay Festival on 30th May.

Lucy Stone, founder and executive director at Climate Spring, commented: “From intimate family stories to sweeping political and historical narratives, this year’s Climate Fiction Prize shortlist once again highlights the extraordinary range of climate storytelling today.

“These novels fluidly move across genres and settings while grappling with some of the defining themes of our time – power, accountability, community and resilience in a changing world. What unites them is the exceptional imagination and craft of the writers behind them, showing us how fiction can illuminate the complexities of the climate crisis while reminding us of the resilience, relationships and collective action that shape our shared future.”

To find out more visit: https://climatefictionprize.co.uk/

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