Overview
- Helen Phillips received the £10,000 Climate Fiction Prize after a London ceremony for Hum, a near-future novel that links climate change and technology in a personal story.
- Judges praised Hum for its intimate focus on how AI-driven unemployment and surveillance shape daily life and for highlighting the way clean nature can become a paid commodity.
- The book follows May, who loses work to AI, undergoes an experimental facial change to evade recognition, and spends much of her money to access one of the last green spaces; judges said these plot elements show privilege and human costs without preaching.
- Climate Spring, which founded and supports the Climate Fiction Prize, said the award aims to use storytelling to challenge deterministic visions of tech and open public debate about possible futures.
- Phillips, an established author and Brooklyn College associate professor, is scheduled for a public interview at the Hay Festival to discuss Hum and its themes with a festival audience.