The Arthur C. Clarke Award is an European award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year.
It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008), who gave a grant to establish the award in 1987. It’s an anglophone award dedicated to the fiction written in english and first published in Great Britain during the previous year. No euro-continental SF writer ever won the Clarke Award.
The book is chosen by a panel of judges from the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation, and a third organisation, which as of 2012 is the Sci-Fi-London film festival. The award has been described as “the Great Britain’s most prestigious science fiction prize”.
The six shortlisted books for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel of the year published in 2014 are:
Memory Of Water - Emmi Itäranta (Finland)
The Book Of Strange New Things - Michel Faber (dutch origin Australian citizen)
The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August - Claire North (pen name of Catherine Webb, UK)
Europe In Autumn - Dave Hutchinson (UK)
The Girl With All The Gifts - M.R. Carey (UK)
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel (Canada)
The 6 shortlisted titles were selected from a list of 107 individual eligible submissions, put forward by 36 different publishing houses and imprints.
Award Director Tom Hunter said:
“This is a quintessentially Clarke Award kind of a shortlist of exactly the sort that we’ve become known for over the years and always love to celebrate. Congratulations to all of our shortlisted authors, their publishing teams and, of course, a big thank you to everyone on our judging panel this year. We’ve got six authors who have never been nominated for the Clarke Award before and while the subject matter may often be dark, when we think about what this list says about the strength of science fiction literature itself, I see a future that’s full of confidence, creativity and diversity of imagination.”
The judging panel for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2015 are:
- Duncan Lawie, British Science Fiction Association
- Nicholas Whyte, British Science Fiction Association
- Sarah Brown, Science Fiction Foundation
- Lesley Hall, Science Fiction Foundation
- Leila Abu El Hawa, SCI-FI-LONDON film festival
Andrew M. Butler represents the Arthur C. Clarke Award in a non-voting role as the Chair of the Judges.
The winner will be announced on Wednesday 6th May at an exclusive award ceremony held at Foyles Bookshop, London, and taking place as part of the activities leading up to the SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival.
The winner will be presented with a cheque for £2015.00 and the award itself, a commemorative engraved bookend.