The 2022 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction has been awarded to Khadija Abdalla Bajaber for her debut YA novel The House of Rust. The novel is a coming-of-age story steeped in Swahili and Hadrami culture in which Aisha, a young girl in Mombasa, Kenya, embarks on a sea journey in an enchanted boat made of a skeleton to rescue her father.
As with other prize winners, Khadija Abdalla Bajaber will be awarded the $25,000 cash prize that is given with the annual Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. Her book was chosen from nine shortlisted books selected by the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize Literary Trust. This year’s judges were adrienne maree brown, Becky Chambers, Molly Gloss, David Mitchell, and Luis Alberto Urrea.
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