Ten books that “dare to imagine how society collides with the future” have been shortlisted for the 2019 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards.

From the challenges of life on a floating Arctic city, to epidemics of forgetfulness and zombification, to an Earth occupied by amphibious aliens, the Neukom shortlist forces readers to grapple with uncomfortable twists to familiar storylines of climate change, social justice and technological innovation.

The second annual speculative fiction awards program will be judged by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. The winners will be announced in late May.

Open Category

• Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller (Ecco, 2018)
• Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax (Soho Press, 2018)
• Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (Little Brown, 2018)
• The Night Market by Jonathan Moore (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)
• Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman (Europa, 2018)

Debut Category

• Alien Virus Love Disaster: Stories by Abbey Mei Otis (Small Beer Press, 2018)
• Infomocracy by Malka Older (Tor, 2016)
• Severance by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018)
• Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman (Small Beer Press, 2017)
• The Book of M by Peng Shepard (William Morrow, 2018)

Co-judge Jeff VanderMeer commented:

It’s been gratifying to play a part in reading and selecting such unique and strong fiction from so many different points of view. We’ve particularly enjoyed encountering writers we had not read before—and it’s especially gratifying to find so many new voices, who we believe readers will be encountering for decades to come. The Dartmouth prize is a much-needed addition to the current slate of science fiction awards.

And co-judge Ann VanderMeer said:

We’re looking forward to selecting the winners. This is such a strong list and a difficult choice for us but a very good problem to have! It’s wonderful to see so many writers taking chances and showing us other ways to view the world we live in today and what our tomorrows could be.

Each award winner will receive a $5,000 honorarium that will be presented during a Dartmouth-hosted panel to discuss the genre and their work.

The Neukom Institute for Computational Science is dedicated to supporting and inspiring computational work. The Literary Arts Awards is part of the Neukom Institute’s initiative to explore the ways in which computational ideas impact society. The Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards were established in 2017. The awards aspire to raise general awareness of the speculative fiction genre, as well as the interconnectivity between the sciences and the arts.

[Based on a press release.]