In a milestone moment for contemporary speculative fiction, Sri Lankan author Vajra Chandrasekera has been awarded the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for his novel Rakesfall. The fourth iteration of the prize, the honour celebrates a single work of imaginative fiction that embodies the visionary spirit of the legendary Ursula K. Le Guin—investigating power, colonial legacies, hope, and alternative realities. Chandrasekera is recognised for crafting a novel that transcends genre boundaries while remaining rooted in urgent social and moral questions.
About the Prize and Its Significance
The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction was established to reward works of imaginative fiction that reflect the themes of equity, non-violence, the natural world, and radical empathy—key concerns of Le Guin’s own writing legacy. Winners receive a USD 25,000 cash prize and global recognition for reshaping speculative storytelling. The jury emphasises works that imagine “real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now.” Chandrasekera’s victory signals both his individual achievement and the growing influence of diverse voices in speculative literature.
The Winning Novel: Rakesfall
Rakesfall, published by Tordotcom Publishing, is described as a sweeping novel in which two protagonists traverse eras, embodying recurring roles against the backdrop of war, colonialism, myth and transformation. It begins amidst the Sri Lankan civil war, then arcs across lifetimes and worlds with themes of grief, resistance and hope. The selection panel described the book as “as fluid and changing as water… a spiritual kaleidoscope,” noting its moral clarity, ambition, and formal daring.
Chandrasekera draws on his background—growing up in Colombo—and blends historical trauma, Buddhist thought, and speculative inversion to ask what freedom might mean beyond conventional narrative frames. Rakesfall is at once intimate and expansive, micro and macro, rooted in local histories yet reaching for cosmic scale.
Chandrasekera’s Journey and Literary Context
Vajra Chandrasekera first came to widespread international attention with his debut novel The Saint of Bright Doors, which earned critical acclaim and multiple awards in the fantasy and science-fiction community. His work has been praised for blending literary ambition with genre innovation, offering narratives of power and identity that defy box-checking categories.
With Rakesfall, Chandrasekera deepens his themes of colonialism, history, myth and memory. In his acceptance remarks, he acknowledged that Le Guin’s example remains “our northern star”—a touchstone of integrity and imagination. He expressed gratitude that his “very strange book” has found a place in the history of this award in her name.
What the Jury Said
The 2025 jury—comprising writers Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu and Rebecca Roanhorse—praised Rakesfall for its formal audacity and emotional depth. They noted that it “funnels genre, narrative structures, characters, and our conception of time into a spiritual kaleidoscope.” They described Chandrasekera’s handling of colonialism and power as written “with moral clarity and strength that speaks to the heart as well as the mind.” The selection marks the novel as “a master-class of the possibilities inherent in fiction.”
Why This Win Matters
Chandrasekera’s triumph is significant on multiple levels:
- For South Asian speculative fiction: A Sri Lankan author winning a major international prize signals widening recognition for voices from the Global South in what has often been a Western-dominated field.
- For genre boundaries: Rakesfall is simultaneously epic, intimate, mythic and critical—challenging what speculative fiction can do and how it can engage history, identity and resistance.
- For literary culture: The prize underscores that imaginative fiction can be serious, morally engaged, artistically daring and globally relevant—not just entertaining.
- For readers: The book invites readers to rethink colonial legacies, religious power, the shape of narrative time and the nature of hope in the face of loss.
Key Themes and Implications
Colonialism and Power – Chandrasekera revisits colonial legacies (especially in Sri Lanka) through speculative registers, exposing structures of domination and offering glimpses of alternative futures.
Memory and Myth – The novel pays close attention to how stories are told, retold and erased. It interrogates collective memory, generational trauma and the myth-making process.
Time, Reincarnation and Resistance – Rakesfall uses recurrent characters and lifetimes to explore resistance across eras, suggesting that struggles against power persist through many forms and contexts.
Hope and Redemption – Despite its weighty themes, the novel holds space for hope. The jury emphasised that imagining change, rather than dystopia alone, is central to its achievement.
What Comes Next for Chandrasekera and the Book
The award is likely to accelerate global interest in Rakesfall, including new editions, translations and heightened academic attention. For Chandrasekera himself, this win amplifies his platform and opens doors for broader readership. It may inspire publishers to champion more daring, regionally rooted speculative fiction with global ambitions.
Readers and book clubs now have the opportunity to engage deeply with Rakesfall—to explore how it challenges genre conventions, how it embeds Sri Lankan experience into cosmic scale, and how it asks us what it means to imagine differently.
Conclusion
In awarding the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction to Vajra Chandrasekera for Rakesfall, the literary world celebrates not only one author’s achievement but the evolving horizons of imaginative fiction. Chandrasekera’s victory is a testament to the power of speculative storytelling rooted in local specificity and global reach. It’s a win for South Asian voices, for bold genre innovation, and for the enduring value of fiction that dares to reimagine our world.
As readers around the world take up Rakesfall, they join a rich conversation about power, history, hope—and the boundless possibilities of imaginative fiction. Vajra Chandrasekera’s award heralds fresh paths to explore in storytelling, where myth and realism, local and cosmic, despair and hope can intertwine in mesmerizing new forms.