EJ Swift wins 2026 Arthur C Clarke Award for climate novel
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- EJ Swift won the 2026 Arthur C Clarke award for "When There Are Wolves Again," which follows two women—Lucy, a climate activist shaped by Covid lockdowns, and Hester, a documentary-maker marked by the Chornobyl disaster—whose lives converge in 2070 Britain
- Arthur C Clarke award is in its 40th year, established in 1987 with a grant from British author Arthur C Clarke; Swift receives £2,026 in prize money, continuing the award's tradition of incremental annual increases since 2001
- Award director Tom Hunter called the winning novel "an ambitious study in the power of long-term hope in the face of climate breakdown"; judging chair Dr Andrew M Butler described it as "a story of environmental change and possible recovery"
- Judges considered a record 132 books submitted by 52 UK publishing imprints and independent authors this year—the largest submission pool in the award's history
- Swift beat five shortlisted authors: 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)
- Swift's previous novel "The Coral Bones" was also shortlisted for the Clarke and the British Science Fiction Association award; she cites Margaret Atwood, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Emily St John Mandel among her influences, the latter two having previously won the Clarke (Station Eleven, 2015)
Why it matters: The Clarke's 40th year saw a record 132-book submission pool, and Swift's win over viral bestseller Dungeon Crawler Carl elevates a literary climate-rewilding narrative to the top of British sci-fi. Swift joins Margaret Atwood (inaugural 1987 winner) and Emily St John Mandel as Clarke winners recognized for environmental storytelling, reinforcing that the UK's most prestigious sci-fi prize is rewarding ecological speculation over crowd-pleasing genre hits.
Ask SkimNews
