The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation has announced the shortlist for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, which annually awards $25,000 to the author of a book who best represents the legendary writer’s literary, moral, and aesthetic ideals: “realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now.”
The nine books on the 2026 shortlist were selected by the Foundation after a public voting process:
Pip Adam, Audition (Coffee House Press)
William Alexander, Sunward (Saga Press)
Christopher Caldwell, Call and Response (Neon Hemlock)
