By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief
At a live event on June 2 in Toronto, author Julia Elliott was named the winner of the 2026 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for her story collection Hellions, published by Tin House Press.
Named after Pulitzer-Prize winning American-Canadian author Carol Shields, the $150,000 top prize is the largest English-language literary prize in the world dedicated to women and non-binary writers in the United States and Canada, with four additional writers on the shortlist awarded $12,500. Beyond the annual prize, the Carol Shields Prize Foundation also works to address “inequality in the literary world” by supporting multiple residencies, mentorships, and scholarship opportunities for women and non-binary writers.
In addition to Hellions, Elliott is the author of the story collection The Wilds, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, as well as the novel The New and Improved Romie Futch. She teaches English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina.
In a statement, the jury (which included Carmen Maria Machado (Chair), Ivan Coyote, Cherie Dimaline, Chitra Divakaruni, and Deesha Philyaw) said Elliott’s winning collection included elements of Southern gothic horror, surrealism, and fantasy. “The work evokes writers like Angela Carter, Dorothy Allison, Gloria Naylor, and Kelly Link,” the jury noted. “But for all its wildness, there is tremendous control; Elliott is a gifted and thrilling writer.”
Elliott was chosen from a 2026 shortlist that also included The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes (One World); Cannon by Lee Lai (Drawn & Quarterly); A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar (McClelland & Stewart, Canada; Knopf, USA); and Lion by Sonya Walger (New York Review Books).
Founded in 2012, the inaugural prize was awarded in 2023. Previous winners include: Canisia Lubrin for Code Noir in 2025; V.V. Ganeshananthan for Brotherless Night in 2024; and Fatimah Asghar for When We Were Sisters in 2023.