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The Climate Fiction Prize is a brand-new literary award, launched in 2024 at the Hay Festival in Wales, and honestly, I love the idea behind it. 

Climate change is such a huge conversation, and it’s exciting to see fiction stepping into the spotlight as a way to explore its impact. 

The prize is backed by Climate Spring and comes with a £10,000 award for the winner. 

That’s a pretty big deal for authors writing about climate issues in creative and thought-provoking ways.

The Judges

This year’s judging panel is packed with people who truly care about nature, storytelling, and the environment:

• Madeleine Bunting (Chair) – A brilliant writer known for Love of Country: A Hebridean Journey.

• Nicola Chester – The author of On Gallows Down, a powerful memoir about nature and activism.

• Andy Fryers – He’s the Global Sustainability Director of the Hay Festival, so he knows everything about keeping things green and impactful.

• David Lindo – Also known as the Urban Birder, he’s a broadcaster and writer who brings an incredible passion for wildlife.

• Tori Tsui – A climate justice activist and writer who really focuses on the human and social aspects of climate change.

With this mix of authors, activists, and nature lovers, I feel like this group will really bring out the best stories on the longlist.

Important Dates

If you’re keeping up with the 2025 Climate Fiction Prize, here’s what to watch out for:

• Longlist Announcement – November 20, 2024 (already out, and I can’t wait to read these books!)

• Shortlist Announcement – March 19, 2025

• Winner Announcement – Spring 2025 (probably around May)

This is the first-ever Climate Fiction Prize, and the 2025 longlist is already making waves.

What’s even cooler? Every single author on this list is a woman.

Plus, there are two debut authors, which is always exciting. 

Also, I’m very happy that there’s enough space between the important dates for readers (like me) to read and make our predictions. 

Here are the books that made it and check below for the actual summaries: 

• Private Rites by Julia Armfield

• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

• And So I Roar by Abi Daré

• Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen

• Orbital by Samantha Harvey

• The Morningside by Téa Obreht

• Water Baby by Chioma Okereke

• The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

• Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright

I’m especially excited about Orbital – it’s by Samantha Harvey, who has already won the Booker Prize, so you know it’s going to be good. 

Also, Water Baby by Chioma Okereke sounds intriguing.

I love discovering books by Nigerian authors, so this one is definitely on my list. 

And, if you want even more book recs, check out this list of the very best science fiction and fantasy books by Black authors. 

Climate fiction is one of those genres that combines real-world urgency with creativity, and I love that this prize is giving it more recognition. 

Fiction has a way of making big issues feel personal, which is exactly what we need when talking about climate change.

I can’t wait to see which books make the shortlist! 

Which ones are you excited to read? 

Let me know—I’m always up for a good book chat!

The 2025 Climate Fiction Prize Longlist

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

A fake marriage, political drama, and Mars? I’m already hooked. 

This story follows January, a former ballet dancer who’s now a refugee on Mars, struggling with second-class status as an Earthstronger—basically, his body isn’t adjusted to Mars’s gravity, and that makes life tough. 

Enter Aubrey Gale, a politician who wants Earthstrongers forcibly adapted to Mars’s conditions. 

After a disastrous press interview, Gale proposes a shocking solution: a marriage of convenience to fix both their reputations. 

But as January gets to know Gale, he realizes there’s way more going on—dangerous secrets, real threats, and a plot that could destroy their entire colony.

I love a good political sci-fi with high emotional stakes, and the whole fake-marriage-to-something-more trope? Say less.

I already know this is going to break my heart in the best way.

Water Baby by Chioma Okereke

A girl from Makoko, a floating slum in Lagos, dreams of a different life and then gets the chance to make it happen. 

Nineteen-year-old Baby joins a drone-mapping project that puts her community on the map (literally). 

But when a video of her goes viral, she suddenly has opportunities she never imagined, including the chance to leave Makoko and represent her home on a global stage. 

But is leaving really the answer?

This one speaks to me on so many levels. 

It’s about chasing big dreams, figuring out where you truly belong, and the pull of home. 

And set in Nigeria? I need to read this.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Six astronauts floating above Earth, watching the planet spin below them—it sounds peaceful, but their thoughts are anything but. 

As they orbit, they witness natural wonders and disasters, think about their loved ones, and question what it means to be human. It’s nature writing, but from space.

This book just sounds stunning. 

I love introspective stories that make you feel small in the vastness of the universe, and I just know this one will be beautifully written. 

Can’t wait to get lost in it.

Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen

A mother trying to protect her kids in a collapsing world? Already emotionally invested. 

Cass is raising her children alone in a world full of climate disasters—fires, floods, and all kinds of chaos. 

She moves them to the countryside, hoping for safety, but things only get more complicated. 

First, her mother-in-law becomes unsettlingly controlling. 

Then, a seemingly perfect commune hides dark secrets. 

It’s a fight for survival and a search for something better.

I love dystopian books that are deeply emotional, and this one sounds like it will be both haunting and heartbreakingly beautiful.

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

It’s been raining forever, the world is drowning, and three estranged sisters are forced back together after their father dies. 

But their reunion isn’t exactly a happy one—especially when they find out his will has a shocking twist. 

As they try to untangle their complicated family history, even more mysteries surface, including secrets tied to their missing mother.

Sisters, family secrets, and a world slipping into something dark and eerie? 

This has the potential to be so atmospheric and deeply emotional. 

I NEED to know what happens to them.

And So I Roar by Abi Daré

A mother’s secret. A girl fighting for her future. A knock at the gate that changes everything. 

Tia, grieving her sick mother, stumbles upon a secret that sends her searching for the truth. 

Meanwhile, Adunni, a 14-year-old runaway, dreams of getting an education but danger is never far behind. 

Their lives intertwine in a way that forces them both to make impossible choices.

I loved Abi Daré’s The Girl with the Louding Voice, so I already know this will be powerful. 

It sounds like it’s going to be heart-wrenching but so worth it – You can read more African historical fiction books here.

Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright

A wild, sweeping story set in northern Australia, full of allegory, absurdity, and big ideas. 

There’s a man obsessed with donkeys (because he thinks they’ll fix the global climate crisis), a woman looking for her family’s place in the world, and two sons struggling with their own identities in a society weighed down by history and oppression.

This one sounds so unique, and I love books that combine deep themes with a bit of the surreal. 

I’m expecting it to be thought-provoking and powerful.

The Morningside by Téa Obreht

Silvia and her mother have been forced out of their homeland, and now they live in a rundown luxury tower called the Morningside. 

Silvia has so many questions about her past, but her mother refuses to answer them. 

Instead, she finds comfort in her aunt’s folktales until her curiosity leads her to a mysterious woman who lives in the penthouse. 

And the more she digs, the more she realizes that some stories might be too dangerous to uncover.

This sounds so magical and mysterious! 

I love books about family secrets and lost homelands, and I can already tell this will have a dreamy, almost mythical quality.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

A civil servant takes a high-paying job, only to find out she’ll be living with a literal time traveler. 

Commander Graham Gore was supposed to have died in 1847, but thanks to a secret government experiment, he’s very much alive and wildly confused about modern life. 

As she helps him adjust, they start to fall for each other. 

But time travel is messy, and their love might come at a price.

This is so my kind of book. 

Romance? Time travel? A historical figure trying to understand washing machines? I already know this will be delightful and heart-wrenching in the best way.

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So guys, if you’re like me and want to read more about protecting the environment, this is a reading list I think everyone will love.

So many of these books I’m super excited to read, and several of the authors are people I genuinely trust, so I just know they’re going to be great. 

Let me know which ones you’re excited about in the comments or which ones you’ll be adding to your reading list!