This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.
The shortlist for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction was recently announced. From their site:
The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction is an annual $25,000 cash prize given to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now. Read about the first Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, awarded in 2022.
This year, eight shortlisted books were chosen by the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation following a public nomination process. The recipient of this year’s prize will be chosen by a selection panel of authors: Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse
The recipient of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction will be announced on October 21st—Ursula’s birthday. Check back closer to that date for more details.
Many thanks to everyone who nominated books for the prize!
- Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera
- Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston
- Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson
- The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy
- The West Passage by Jared Pechaček
- Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins
- The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
- North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher
One of the best things bout this award is that the award itself is a conversation starter. As it says above, these books recognize writers who are "realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now."
The prize is not limited to a particular genre. Each year the panel of judges chooses books that capture the spirit of "imaginative fiction" as Le Guin championed it.
The 2025 shortlist of titles are all great for a general, public library audience, as are the 2024, 2023, and 2022 backlist titles which can all be accessed here.
All of those books would make a great "imaginative fiction display" in the building or online. This would be a great way to showcase a variety of genres and pull out books people would love if only they knew about them.
And if you need more titles than the lists from the website, pair the displays with a rephrasing of the Le Guin quote by asking people, "What is your favorite book that imagines alternatives to how we live now?" Or simply ask the very open ended question, "What is your favorite imaginative fiction book?" Remember, I have a post explaining how to do conversation starters on a larger scale here, but you can also just put up the displays and leave out a board for post-it note answers (in building) or gather answers in the comments (online).
Either way, this is a fun, anytime of year display. And don't forget to add some Le Guin titles as well.
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