Prizes · New Zealand

pip adam's Audition wins 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction

The Wellington writer takes the US$25,000 international award for a novel first published by Te Herenga Waka University Press.

By The Book Source23 October 20261 minute read

Wellington writer pip adam has won the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for the novel Audition. The international award, first presented in 2022, recognises a single work of imaginative fiction and is worth US$25,000.

Audition was published in Aotearoa by Te Herenga Waka University Press and in Australia by Giramondo in 2023. Its 2025 US edition from Coffee House Press made it eligible for this year's prize. The novel opens on a spaceship powered by the speech of three giants, who grow larger whenever they stop talking, and deals with state power, punishment and justice.

The judges called the book ambitious and original, describing it as "an astonishing and ultimately joyful work".

adam's earlier novel The New Animals won the Acorn Foundation Prize for Fiction. adam's latest book, kluge, a workplace satire narrated by an AI, came out from Te Herenga Waka University Press on 13 August. adam also hosts the Better off Read podcast.

Original source: Kete Books ↗

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