EJ Swift wins 2026 Arthur C Clarke Award
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- EJ Swift won the 2026 Arthur C Clarke Award for When There Are Wolves Again, a novel about rewilding and climate activism in near-future Britain that follows two women — Lucy and Hester — across half a century, with their separate journeys converging in 2070.
- Tom Hunter, the award's director, called the winning novel an "ambitious study in the power of long-term hope in the face of climate breakdown," while judging chair Dr Andrew M Butler described it as "a story of environmental change and possible recovery."
- Swift receives £2,026 in prize money, continuing the award's tradition of incrementally raising the sum each year since 2001, in what marks the prize's 40th anniversary since Arthur C Clarke's founding grant in 1987.
- Judges considered a record 132 submissions from 52 UK publishing imprints and independent authors, with Swift beating shortlisted rivals Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl), Laila Lalami (The Dream Hotel), Silvia Park (Luminous), qntm (There Is No Antimemetics Division) and Lorraine Wilson (The Salt Oracle).
- Lisa Tuttle's Guardian review praised the winning novel as "evocative and beautifully written" and a "character-driven … argument for rewilding in Britain," calling it powered by "a passionate love of nature and deep concern for the planet's future."
- The Arthur C Clarke Award, first won by Margaret Atwood in 1987 for The Handmaid's Tale, has also previously recognised Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad (2017) and Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven (2015), with last year's winner being Sierra Greer for Annie Bot.
Why it matters: The Clarke Award drew a record 132 submissions in its 40th-anniversary year, and Swift's selection for a hopeful climate-recovery novel reflects judges' appetite for fiction showing 'no one future has to be inevitable,' per director Tom Hunter.
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