Ese Erheriene has won the 2024 Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour with her short story “The Suit Sellers of Kowloon”, described by the judges as “evocative and well-executed”. It is the first time a short story has won the competition. 

 The runner-up is Farah Maria Rahman for her novel Tribe of the Snow Leopards. 

Erheriene, winner of the £4,500 prize, is an emerging writer of short stories, fiction and poetry. Born and raised in South East London, she has lived in France, Norway, and across Asia. A journalist, she wrote for The Wall Street Journal — in London and Hong Kong — for almost six years. In 2020, she moved to Portugal for a year to write about identity, disconnection and culture.  

“The Suit Sellers of Kowloon” is set among the men who work as suit sellers and tailors on the streets of Kowloon, in Hong Kong. The reader follows Siddharth as, one by one, sellers begin to go missing under mysterious circumstances — but the thread running through it all is the love story between Siddharth and his wife Onovughakpor. 

 The judges said: “The Suit Sellers of Kowloon stayed with us, and is surprising without giving too much away at the beginning. Good scene-setting and slick character introductions make for an evocative and well-executed story.” 

Rahman, the runner-up, lives in London and studied English at the University of Sussex and Goldsmiths College. Her novel, Tribe of the Snow Leopards, is set on Aurotopia, a planet much like Earth, where Tahmina is growing restless. The rules of her village are constantly revised by the all-powerful ‘elders’, and following orders is not what she’s best at. When her closest friend goes missing, Tahmina must go against all that she knows to find her. But what she discovers goes beyond anything she could have imagined… her home is being colonised by the Earth-born, and her ‘best friend’ is on their side. 

The judges said: “The stakes are set out clearly from the beginning in Tribe of the Snow Leopards, which is a story with heart and soul. It is a clear and well-written story, with an exciting twist.” 

The other six shortlisted writers get £850 each:  Zita Abila, Nelita Aromona, Isha Karki, Inigo Laguda, Ruairidh MacLean, and M.A. Seneviratne. 

This year’s prize was judged by: 

• 2021 Future Worlds Prize winner M.H. Ayinde 
• Writer and novelist author Isabelle Dupuy 
• Quantum physicist turned best-selling author Femi Fadugba 
• Founder of Originate Literary Agency, Natalie Jerome 
• Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Tade Thompson. 

Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour aims to find new talent based in the UK writing in the SFF space, from magical realism and space operas to dystopia and more. In addition to the cash prizes, all shortlisted writers, the runner-up and the winner will also receive mentoring from one of the prize’s publishing partners Bloomsbury Publishing, Daphne Press, Orion Books’ Gollancz, Penguin Random House’s Michael Joseph, Hachette’s SFF imprint Orbit, Hodder’s Hodderscape, and Pan Macmillan’s Tor. 

Future Worlds Prize was founded by bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch in 2020, and was previously named the Gollancz and Rivers of London BAME SFF Award. The prize is financially supported by Aaronovitch and Bridgerton actor Adjoa Andoh. It is administered by Future Worlds Prize CIC, a not-for-profit organisation.  

[Based on a press release.]