Pip Adam on Ursula K Le Guin Prize for Fiction shortlist
In the US, Aotearoa New Zealand author Pip Adam has been shortlisted for the Ursula K Le Guin Prize for Fiction for the novel Audition.
First published in 2023 by Giramondo and Te Herenga Waka University Press, then published in 2025 by Coffee House Press in the US, “Audition is a story about what happens when systems of power decide someone takes up too much room”, according to the author.
The book was previously shortlisted for the 2024 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction.
The US$25,000 Ursula K Le Guin Prize for Fiction celebrates “realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now”.
Nominated by the public, the shortlisted titles are:
- Audition (Pip Adam, Giramondo)
- Call and Response (Christopher Caldwell, Neon Hemlock)
- Mad Sisters of Esi (Tashan Mehta, DAW Books)
- Midnight Timetable (Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur, Scribe)
- Notes from a Regicide (Isaac Fellman, Tor Books)
- One Message Remains (Premee Mohamed, Psychopomp)
- Slow Gods (Claire North, Orbit)
- Sunward (William Alexander, Saga Press)
- The Works of Vermin (Hiron Ennes, Tor Nightlife).
Prize judges are the authors Nicola Griffith, Mat Johnson, Fonda Lee, Darcie Little Badger and Peter Rock. The winner will be announced on 21 October.
Last year’s winner was Rakesfall (Vajra Chandrasekera, Tor Books).
More information about the shortlist and the prize is available on the Ursula K Le Guin Foundation website.
Category: Awards Local news
