North Adams author Eden Robins shortlisted for Ursula K Le Guin fiction prize | Books
NORTH ADAMS — Eden Robins’ unconventional novel that explores grief, AI and human connections has been shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction.
“Remember You Will Die,” is among the eight finalists for the award which comes with a $25,000 prize. Announced by the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation Wednesday, the the 2025 shortlist also includes “Rakesfall” by Vajra Chandrasekera; “Archangels of Funk” by Andrea Hairston; “Blackheart Man” by Nalo Hopkinson; “The Sapling Cage” by Margaret Killjoy; “The West Passage” by Jared Pechaček; “The City in Glass” by Nghi Vo and “North Continent Ribbon” by Ursula Whitcher.
The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction is an annual cash prize given to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. This year’s eight shortlisted books were chosen by the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize Foundation, following a public nomination period. This year’s winner will be chosen by a panel of authors: Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse. The prize will be awarded on Le Guin’s birthday, Oct. 21.
UNUSUAL STORYTELLING
Composed primarily of obituaries, “Remember You Will Die” traces the lives of artists, activists, scientists and more as they intersect and overlap with the existence of a yearning AI who misses her daughter.
This story, however, is not told in a traditional manner. It’s format is more akin to the novelization of the ramblings of conspiracy theorists as they connect newspaper clippings, tacked to a cork board, with red string.
This collection of obituaries — belonging to seemingly unconnected people — begins as a series of blurry glimpses into the lives of seemingly ordinary and unconnected individuals, but quickly comes into focus when connections start to form between these “ordinary” individuals and the extraordinary events that led to an AI being to exist in the physical world and eventually give birth to a child.
“Remember You Will Die” was longlisted for the 25th annual Massachusetts Book Awards prize in fiction in May.
