Climate Fiction Prize opens second year submissions with stellar judging panel

The Climate Fiction Prize has opened submissions for its 2026 cycle, with publishers now invited to put forward eligible novels. Now in its second year, the Climate Fiction Prize continues to demonstrate the genre’s rapid emergence as one of the most vibrant and necessary spaces in contemporary storytelling. No longer niche, climate fiction provides the backdrop for superb, engaging and dramatic stories. It is also a vital lens through which we examine what it means to be human — stories that don’t just sound the alarm, but help us imagine what it means to live, adapt and dream in a changing world. The inaugural winner of the prize was Abi Daré, whose novel And So I Roar illuminated the intersections of environmental and social injustices while finding the courage to imagine a better future. Since her win, she has been chosen for the Independent’s Climate 100 List.

Alongside the call for submissions, the Prize has unveiled its stellar 2026 judging panel, bringing together leading voices from literature, the arts and climate science:

• Arifa Akbar - chief theatre critic, writer and Chair of Judges
• Kit de Waal - award-winning novelist
• Jessie Greengrass - award-winning novelist
• Friederike Otto - climatologist
• Simon Savidge - broadcaster and presenter

This year’s judging panel brings together some of the most exciting voices from literature, the arts and climate science; a mix of perspectives that reflects the very spirit of the genre: Arifa Akbar, Chief Theatre Critic at The Guardian and former literary editor of The Independent; award-winning, bestselling novelists Kit de Waal (The Best of Everything and My Name is Leon) and Jessie Greengrass (The High House and Sight) and leading climatologist Dr Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London and co-founder of the World Weather Attribution initiative. Finally, Simon Savidge is a bibliophile, broadcaster and presenter whose YouTube channel Savidge Reads has over 2.5 million views.

Submissions for the 2026 award are open until 13 November 2025. Publishers can submit novels published between 1 September 2024 and 31 August 2025. The winner will be announced in May 2026 and will receive £10,000, with the prize supported by Climate Spring.

MEET THE JUDGES

ARIFA AKBAR - CHAIR OF JUDGES

Arifa Akbar is chief theatre critic at The Guardian. She is the former literary editor of The Independent where she also worked as a news reporter and arts correspondent. Her first book, Consumed: A Sister’s Story, was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford prize and shortlisted for the Costa Biography Prize, the PEN Ackerley Prize and the Jhalak Prize. Her second book, Wolf Moon: A Woman’s Journey into the Night, published in July 2025, was a BBC Radio Four Book of the Week. She is a former trustee of English PEN and the Orwell Foundation, where she co-administered its book prize.

‘I'm honoured to be chairing the panel of judges for this fantastic prize. Climate crisis is one of the most urgent issues of our day and this prize showcases authors telling stories about it in the boldest, most inspired and imaginative of ways.’

JESSIE GREENGRASS

Jessie Greengrass is the author of two novels: The High House, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Prize 2021, the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2022 and the Encore Award 2022, and Sight, was published 2018 and shortlisted for the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her collection of short stories, An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw it was published in 2015. It won the Edge Hill Prize 2016, a Somerset Maugham Award, and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times PFD Young Writer of the Year Award. She lives in Northumberland with her partner and their two children.

‘Although I'm a writer now I was a reader first: for as long as I can remember books have been a source of comfort to me, and solace. More than that, though, they've given me encouragement and hope, connection, an expanded sense of the world and my place in it. There's nothing more human as a response to crisis than telling stories about how it feels, and how we might move forwards - it's a privilege to be given the chance to do nothing for a while except explore these stories in all their variety, as told by some incredibly talented writers. I can't wait!’

KIT DE WAAL

Kit de Waal is the author of the novels My Name is Leon, which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, The Trick to Time, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, a short story collection, Supporting Cast, and a memoir, Without Warning & Only Sometimes, which was a Radio 4 Book of the Week and was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. She is also editor of the Common People anthology, and co-founder of the Big Book Weekend festival. Kit was Chair of Judges for the Women’s Prize 2025 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.  She is currently Professor and Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at Leicester University and her new novel The Best of Everything was released in April 2025.  

‘I am delighted to be a judge for the Climate Fiction Prize 2026 a much needed way to focus storytelling on one of the most pressing issues of our time.  This prize highlights those writers who are finding new ways to describe our relationship to climate and the environment and I can’t wait to read what they have to say.’

FRIEDERIKE OTTO

Friederike Otto is a professor in climate science at Imperial College London. She is physicist by training and obtained her doctorate in philosophy of science in 2011. Her main area of expertise is on extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves and storms, and understanding whether and to what extent these are made more likely or intense due to climate change. Dr Otto is co-founder and lead of World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international effort to analyse and communicate the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events. In addition to well over a 100 academic papers she published two non-fiction books: Angry Weather in 2020 and Climate InJustice in 2025.

In 2021 Fredi was recognised for her co-founding of WWA on the TIME100 list as one of the world’s most influential individuals, according to the renowned TIME magazine and as one of the top 10 people who made a difference in science in 2021, by the journal Nature. In 2023 she received the prestigious German Environmental Prize and an honorary doctorate from Concordia University in Montreal in 2024 and one from Edinburgh University in 2025.

‘I’m very excited to be a judge on this panel, because in my view, the stories we tell is one of the big reasons holding us back from making progress on climate policy. Telling stories that do not question the status quo will make the world of today with rising inequality, authoritarian regimes and environmental destruction seem inevitable. Without great stories, change is too hard.’

SIMON SAVIDGE

Simon Savidge is a bibliophile, broadcaster and presenter. He has judged the Costa Book Awards, Portico Prize and Desmond Elliott Prize. He has appeared on the Booker Prize Live on BBC, recommended books on BBC 5 Live and BBC Radio 2,  co-hosted Turn Up ForThe Books on BBC Sounds. He has co-presented three seasons of Sky Arts Book Club and hosted Sky Arts Live from Hay in 2023. His YouTube channel Savidge Reads has over 2.5 million views. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

‘I am excited that through judging the Climate Fiction Prize I will be getting a front row view into the evolving cultural conversation around climate change through stories; those that confront us, those that suggest change and those that give hope. I am eagerly anticipating the submissions and the thoughts and discussions they provoke over the months ahead with such esteemed fellow judges and then with readers at large.