Climate Fiction Prize 2025: Shortlist Revealed – Thien, Arnott & More
The competition is heating up in the burgeoning field of climate fiction. The shortlist for the 2026 Climate Fiction Prize was announced today, , recognizing six novels that grapple with the climate crisis through compelling storytelling. The £10,000 prize, now in its second year, highlights the growing literary response to one of the defining challenges of our time.
Among the finalists are established authors Madeleine Thien and Robbie Arnott, alongside Keshava Guha, Susanna Kwan, Maria Reva and Helen Phillips. The selection demonstrates a broadening scope for the genre, moving beyond traditional “disaster fiction” tropes to explore the nuanced human and societal impacts of a changing world.
Madeleine Thien’s shortlisted novel, The Book of Records, follows a young girl and her father as they flee flooding in a near-future China, ultimately finding themselves in a large migrant compound known as the Sea. Guardian reviewer Xan Brooks described the operate as a “rich and attractive novel” that traces the human costs of climate change and social injustice, weaving together personal and historical narratives across generations.
Robbie Arnott’s Dusk offers a different perspective, centering on twins who embark on a hunt for a puma in the Tasmanian wilderness. James Bradley, writing in the Guardian, called it a “starkly beautiful and deeply felt” novel. The book’s setting and subject matter suggest an exploration of humanity’s relationship with the natural world and the consequences of ecological disruption.
The shortlist also includes The Tiger’s Share by Keshava Guha, a state-of-the-nation tale set in heavily polluted Delhi, focusing on sibling rivalry. Susanna Kwan’s debut novel, Awake in the Floating City, presents a haunting vision of a flooded San Francisco, following an artist and the 130-year-old woman she cares for – two of the last remaining inhabitants. These selections point to a global scope for climate fiction, addressing the crisis in diverse cultural and geographical contexts.
Further enriching the list are Maria Reva’s Endling, which uniquely intertwines environmental collapse with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and Helen Phillips’s Hum, a near-future story where robots have taken over many jobs, and the environment is severely compromised. Daisy Hildyard, in a Guardian review, described Hum as “mesmerising and scary,” suggesting a chillingly plausible vision of the future.
The judging panel for the prize includes Arifa Akbar, chief theatre critic at the Guardian. novelists Kit de Waal and Jessie Greengrass; climate scientist Friederike Otto; and broadcaster Simon Savidge. Their diverse backgrounds reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the climate crisis and the necessitate for multifaceted perspectives in addressing it.
Several novels were longlisted for the prize but did not develop the final cut, including works by Grace Chan, Sarah Hall, Anna Hope, Jon McGoran, Tim Winton, and An Yu. This demonstrates the wealth of literary talent currently engaging with climate themes.
The Climate Fiction Prize is funded by Climate Spring, an organization that also provides financial support and consulting services for climate-related film and TV projects. This connection highlights the growing recognition of the power of storytelling across all media to raise awareness and inspire action on climate change.
According to Lucy Stone, founder and executive director of Climate Spring, the shortlisted novels “fluidly move across genres and settings even as grappling with some of the defining themes of our time – power, accountability, community and resilience in a changing world.” This statement underscores the prize’s commitment to recognizing works that offer not just warnings about the future, but also explorations of how humanity might navigate it.
The inaugural winner of the Climate Fiction Prize, announced in , was Abi Daré for her novel And So I Roar. The 2026 winner will be announced on . The prize’s eligibility criteria require that nominated books have been published in the UK between , and .
The emergence of the Climate Fiction Prize and the quality of this year’s shortlist signal a significant moment for the genre. It’s no longer simply about imagining dystopian futures; it’s about exploring the complex realities of a world already grappling with the consequences of climate change, and the stories that support us understand – and perhaps navigate – what lies ahead.