The Climate Fiction Prize 2026: Helen Phillips talks to Simon Savidge

Be part of a powerful and inspiring discussion about dramatic climate stories that don’t just sound the alarm but help us imagine what it means to live, adapt and dream in a fast-changing world, driving us towards hope for the future.

Join Climate Fiction Prize judge Simon Savidge as he welcomes 2026 winner Helen Phillips to the stage to discuss her perceptive and compassionate novel 'Hum'. Together, they’ll explore the themes at the heart of the book, the growing importance of climate fiction, and why Hum was chosen as the winner of the second Climate Fiction Prize. Tracing climate fiction’s rapid emergence as one of the most vibrant and necessary spaces in contemporary storytelling, they’ll delve into the role fiction can play in helping us change climate futures by forging new cultural narratives. If creatives are the antennae of society, the winning novel and its themes tell us something profound about this moment in time.