South Carolina writer Julia Elliott has won the 2026 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for her short-story collection Hellions.
The US$150,000 award bills itself as the world’s largest prize for women and non-binary authors, with a focus on writers from Canada and the United States. Elliott was announced as the winner in Toronto on Tuesday evening.
'Hellions,' by Julia Elliott, was published by Tin House.Amazon/Supplied
This year’s jury was chaired by Carmen Maria Machado and included Yukon’s Ivan Coyote, Cherie Dimaline of the Georgian Bay Métis Community, and U.S.-based writers Chitra Divakaruni and Deesha Philyaw.
“This eerie, eclectic, genre-leaping collection takes no half-measures; every sentence of Hellions crackles or crawls," the jury wrote in announcing the winner. “Here, human folly moves against a backdrop of horror and magic.”
The other finalists for this year’s prize included Montreal-based Lee Lai (Cannon) as well as U.S. authors Quiara Alegría Hudes (The White Hot), Megha Majumdar (A Guardian and a Thief), and Sonya Walger (Lion).
Elliott teaches English and women’s and gender studies at the University of South Carolina. Her book Hellions was published by Tin House. The prize also includes a five-night stay at the Fogo Island Inn.