A shortlist has been released for the $25,000 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, which is "intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech--realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now." The winner, chosen by a panel of authors, will be named on October 21. This year's shortlisted titles are:
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom Publishing)
The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher (Ballantine Books)
It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken (New Directions)
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Grove Press)
Sift by Alissa Hattman (The 3rd Thing)
The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Scholastic Press)
Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey)
The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed (Solaris)
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Tordotcom Publishing)
Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom Publishing)