Namwali Serpell Wins Arthur C. Clarke Award for THE OLD DRIFT
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Namwali Serpell’s THE OLD DRIFT (Hogarth) has won this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award, considered by many to be the UK’s most prestigious science fiction prize. Now in its 34th year, this annual award recognizes the best science fiction novel published in the UK during the previous year.
Andrew M. Butler, chair of the judges, called THE OLD DRIFT “an extraordinary family saga that spans eras from Cecil Rhodes to Rhodes Must Fall, and beyond,” praising it for “interrogat[ing] colonialism from within and point[ing] to the science fictionality of everyday events.” Butler went on to say, “THE OLD DRIFT is, as one of our judges put it, ‘stealth sci-fi’, with inheritance and infection at its heart. Our pandemic-ravaged world reminds us how connected our world has been for the last century or more – and this book points to the global nature of science fiction.”
Congratulations to Ms. Serpell, her editor, Alexis Washam, and everyone at Hogarth.
Previous winners of the Arthur C. Clarke Award include Penguin Random House authors Margaret Atwood, Emily St. John Mandel, and Colson Whitehead.