This year’s Hay Festival (May 23–June 2) will see the introduction of The global Fiction Prize, a new award for fiction that addresses the global problem. The winner of the prize, which is sponsored by the storytelling organization Climate Spring, will get £10,000. The first prize will be given out in 2025’s spring.

Climate Majority

The prize’s stated objectives are to highlight books of exceptional literary worth and to strengthen, develop, and broaden the body of work that addresses the climate catastrophe. The creators include Imran Khan, a former head of public engagement at the Wellcome Trust who is currently at UC Berkeley, Rose Goddard, executive director of Wimbledon BookFest and previous prize manager of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and Leo Barasi, author of The Climate Majority.

Author Nicola Chester, whose book On Gallows Down was shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize, climate justice activist and writer Tori Tsui, and Andy Fryers, the sustainability director of Hay Festival, will also serve as judges in this debut year of the prize. Writer Madeleine Bunting will chair the jury.

On Sunday, June 2, at Hay Festival, they will all participate in a panel discussion to officially introduce the prize to the general audience. Change begins with the imagination, and no subject needs new stories of repair and care more urgently than the climate crisis, according to Bunting.

The purpose of this prize is to identify new talent and assist in bringing it to a wider audience, thereby igniting debate and encouraging other authors to take on the crucial task of imagining what is possible.

Cultural Paralysis

“We are thrilled to be supporting the world’s first literary prize for climate fiction, celebrating innovative writers with new stories,” said Lucy Stone, the executive director and founder of Climate Spring. Concerns about climate change are causing a cultural paralysis that is preventing action.

Fiction can break through this paralysis by putting us in the shoes of others or giving us the confidence to envision more exciting futures. The tale of climate change is not just one of environmental destruction, but also one of human transformation and restoration.”

Full submission details will be available on Monday, June 3, 2024, when submissions open. Autumn/winter will see the announcement of the longlist and shortlist, with the £10,000 winner to be revealed in spring 2025.