The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a prize for excellent science fiction writing. It is a British award for a science fiction novel from the year before. To win, a the novel must be published first in the United Kingdom. The winner gets money as a prize. The prize amount increases each year. It is a number of pounds sterling equal to the year of the prize (£1987 for the first prize in 1987, and £2011 for the most recent prize).
The science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke gave money to start the prize. The first prize was given in 1987. A group of judges choose the winning book. Judges come from the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and a third group. Now, that third group SF Crowsnest. The Serendip Foundation manages the prize. Recently, the award has been presented on the first night of the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival.
List of winners
1987: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
1988: The Sea and Summer by George Turner
1989: Unquenchable Fire by Rachel Pollack
1990: The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman
1991: Take Back Plenty by Colin Greenland
1992: Synners by Pat Cadigan
1993: Body of Glass by Marge Piercy (published as He, She and It in the U.S.) 1994: Vurt by Jeff Noon 1995: Fools by Pat Cadigan 1996: Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley 1997: The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh 1998: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 1999: Dreaming in Smoke by Tricia Sullivan 2000: Distraction by Bruce Sterling 2001: Perdido Street Station by China Miéville 2002: Bold As Love by Gwyneth Jones 2003: The Separation by Christopher Priest 2004: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson 2005: Iron Council by China Miéville 2006: Air by Geoff Ryman 2007: Nova Swing by M. John Harrison 2008: Black Man by Richard Morgan 2009: Song of Time by Ian R. MacLeod 2010: The City and the City by China Miéville 2011: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes 2012: The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers 2013: Dark Eden by Chris Beckett 2014: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie 2015: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 2016: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 2017: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 2018: Dreams Before the Start of Time by Anne Charnock