“There is nothing inherently liberatory in the imagination, but it must be made so”

Vajra Chandrasekera

From the Editors: 
Our warm congratulations to Vajra Chandrasekera, whose writing we have been pleased to feature, on the honour of receiving the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, for his second novel Rakesfall (2024). He is the recipient of several prizes for both this work and his first novel, The Saint of Bright Doors (2023).

The panel of selectors explained their choice as follows:

“As fluid and changing as water, Rakesfall funnels genre, narrative structures, characters, and our conception of time into a spiritual kaleidoscope. Rakesfall trusts us to follow, across the literary equivalent of light years, a deeply felt and moving story of grief, loss, and ultimately hope to savor in dark times. Like Le Guin, Vajra Chandrasekera writes about colonialism and power with a kind of moral clarity and strength that speaks to the heart as well as the mind. He has created a masterclass of the possibilities inherent in fiction. Rakesfall is an extraordinary achievement in science fiction, and a titanic work of art.”

Typically, Chandrasekera made his acceptance speech for the award, not about himself, but rather one of the defining causes of our time. We reproduce this extract for our readers, from his website.

Image Credit: ursulakleguin.com
Author Picture: Sanjeewa Weerasinghe

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