The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation has named Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall (Tordotcom Publishing) this year's winner of the $25,000 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, presented to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. The award is intended to recognize those writers Le Guin 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.
The selection panel said: "As fluid and changing as water, Rakesfall funnels genre, narrative structures, characters, and our conception of time into a spiritual kaleidoscope. Rakesfall trusts us to follow, across the literary equivalent of light years, a deeply felt and moving story of grief, loss, and ultimately hope to savor in dark times. Like Le Guin, Vajra Chandrasekera writes about colonialism and power with a kind of moral clarity and strength that speaks to the heart as well as the mind. He has created a masterclass of the possibilities inherent in fiction. Rakesfall is an extraordinary achievement in science fiction, and a titanic work of art."
In his acceptance speech, Chandrasekera observed: "Le Guin is special to us all, especially to writers in her tradition--because she's one of those few rare writers that I think all of us love and would claim for our own, as influence, as elder, as northern star. So I will say again how honored I am and how moved I am that my very strange book has a place in the history of this wonderful award in her name."
Chandrasekera's full speech and the prize announcement, hosted by actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach, can be viewed here.