Edmonton author Premee Mohamed shortlisted for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction

Edmonton author Premee Mohamed's novel The Siege of Burning Grass has made the shortlist for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction.

The annual $25,000 prize is given to the author of a book that reflects the concepts and ideas that were central to Ursula’s own work. 

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. 

This year, ten 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: Margaret Atwood, Omar El Akkad, Megan Giddings, Ken Liu, and Carmen Maria Machado.

The recipient of the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction will be announced on October 21st — Ursula’s birthday.

Here is the complete shortlist of titles for 2024:

• The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom Publishing)
• The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher (Ballantine Books)
• It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken (New Directions)
• Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Grove Press)
• Sift by Alissa Hattman (The 3rd Thing)
• The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Scholastic Press)
• Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey)
• The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed (Solaris)
• Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom Publishing)
• Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom Publishing)