By Michael Grossberg
Science fiction novelist Travis Corcoran is gearing up to publish a new novel in his Prometheus-winning Aristillus series.
Corcoran has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Aristillus: Escape From Io, his first new Aristillus novel in almost ten years.
“The manuscript is complete,” Corcoran said.
Editor’s note: Trev and Tessa Huxley, Aldous Huxley’s grandchildren, spoke Aug. 16, 2026, at the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony to accept the award for Huxley’s classic dystopian novel Brave New World, the 50th work to be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame. This is Trev Huxley’s speech.
By Trev Huxley
I look around today and find myself in a world that’s a combination of my grandfather’s, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World and his former student George Orwell’s 1984.
A number of years ago I sat down with a senior Facebook executive who during our discussion looked at me and said “Trev we know more about you than you know about yourself.”
It was a bit of a boast, but not one that was a very hollow boast. They at the time were acquiring every commercially known database that they could get their hands on and compiling with the data they collected to create a profile of everyone in their network.
We now live in a society where surveillance has gotten into such an extreme level that the Chinese government virtually knows everything about everyone that lives there and can track them everywhere in real time. That’s the 1984 downside of my reality.
Editor’s note: Tessa Huxley, Aldous Huxley’s granddaughter, spoke Aug. 16, 2026, at the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony to accept the award for Huxley’s classic dystopian novel Brave New World, the 50th work to be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
By Tessa Huxley
For some reason I felt the need to reread Brave New World in February of this year, long before Michael Grossberg wrote to my brother and I regarding the Prometheus Award. Like many of you, I am sure, I had read it as a teenager and again in my late 20’s and in my 30’s.
What really struck me in February was just how incredibly relevant the book is today, in 2026.
Editor’s note: Dave Freer won the first Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction for his novel Storm-Dragon, published by Raconteur Press. Speaking from his home in Tasmania, Australia, Freer delivered this acceptance speech Aug. 16, 2026, via Zoom during the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony.
“Reading is vital – to civilization, to liberty, to everything we wish for our species, especially for our young.” – Dave Freer
By Dave Freer
Good afternoon everybody. For me that is actually ‘good predawn’ because it is 3 AM here. Like many authors I’ve kept a notebook next to the bedside so I could, on waking, hastily write down the gifts of the muse that sorted themselves into brilliance while I slept.
Unfortunately, the morning usually revealed gems like: ‘Orglvard at speed, with minchins and porgies.’ which I am sure meant something at the time, and was quite brilliant. I hope I am a little more awake than that, but I am not betting on it. I plead forgiveness in advance.
Firstly: Thank you all for awarding the Special Prometheus prize for Young Adult Literature to my book Storm-Dragon.
I am delighted to accept it. It’s flattering for me, but that is really rather beside the point. The real delight is that the Prometheus – an award which is a reliable indicator ‘you will love the book’ has put its mark on a YA SF-novel.
Travis Corcoran, a guest speaker at the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony, was introduced by LFS President William H. Stoddard with these words:
“The Best Novel and Hall of Fame awards are given annually. But the LFS also gives Special Awards, not every year, but when there’s a deserving recipient. A few years ago, we established the category of Special Awards for Young Adult Fiction. This year, for the first time, we’re giving such an award.
“To present this award, we have invited Travis Corcoran to speak. Corcoran received our Best Novel award in 2018 and 2019 for the two volumes of his Aristillus series, The Powers of the Earth and Causes of Separation; this year he has published a new novel, Red State Mars. He currently serves as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. We look forward to hearing what he has to say about young adult fiction and about this year’s honoree.”
There’s a strange thing about systems – they have state, and often state comes in two or more types, which trade off against each other.
Pendulums have both kinetic energy and potential energy. When a pendulum is dead still, it’s at its highest altitude, and when it’s moving rapidly, it’s at its lowest. Social phenomena can also have state that’s traded back and forth – hobbies and subcultures often reach their absolute peak at exactly the point when growth has fallen to zero. …but there’s no law of conservation of energy in subcultures – a hobby can lose both size and energy at the same time!
Ham radio, bowling leagues – many hobbies have suffered from losing both “altitude” and “speed” at the same time. Deadly in an airplane as a private pilot, and equally deadly to a subculture. …deadly in a subculture like science fiction, generally, or libertarian science fiction, more specifically.
Editor’s note: This is the text of the acceptance speech by Pulitzer-winning author Jack Miles, co-trustee of the Aldous and Laura Huxley Literary Trust, for Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the 2026 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner. Miles delivered a somewhat shorter speech Aug. 16, 2026, during the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony.
By Jack Miles
Speaking for the Aldous and Laura Huxley Literary Trust, I am pleased to salute the Libertarian Futurist Society for awarding the Society’s Prometheus Award to Aldous Huxley’s dystopian masterpiece, Brave New World.
By imagining proleptically and prophetically just how far state control over society might go, Brave New World delivered a warning that is as needed now as it ever was.
Editor’s note: J. Kenton Pierce, who won the 2026 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for A Kiss for Damocles, delivered his acceptance speech Aug. 16, 2026, during the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony.
By J. Kenton Pierce
I am deeply grateful for this tremendous honor. Giving a speech wasn’t a problem I imagined having, considering that A Kiss for Damocles was up against books by people who’ve written some of my favorite stories.
I’m no deep political or philosophical thinker. I’m just a character-driven reader, so I lean in on crafting characters I’d enjoy spending time with.
Editor’s note: LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg, who chairs the Prometheus Best Novel Judging Committee, presented the 2026 Prometheus Award for Best Novel to J. Kenton Pierce for A Kiss for Damocles. This is the first in a series of posts celebrating the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony, with separate articles devoted to each Aug. 16 speech by winners and presenters.
Since the Prometheus Award was first presented in 1979, 47 books have won Best Novel. Today, we will honor a 48th.
One of the oldest fan-based sf/fantasy awards after the Hugos and Nebulas, the Prometheus Awards are distinctive in their dual focus on both liberty and literary quality. While quite a few Prometheus-winning works have also won Hugo and Nebula awards, only the Libertarian Futurist Society annually recognizes fantastical fiction that consistently champions respect for human rights – even for that smallest oppressed minority, the individual.
By Michael Grossberg
ONE Special Prometheus Award — the first for Young Adult Fiction.
TWO exciting guest speakers — leading libertarian thinker Ilya Somin, who will give the keynote speech on libertarian currents in SF/fantasy; and two-time Prometheus Best Novel winner Travis Corcoran (The Powers of the Earth, Causes of Separation), who will discuss the vital importance of Young Adult Fiction to encourage and inspire new generations of readers.
THREE Prometheus Awards — more than the usual annual two for Best Novel and the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.
By the numbers alone, this Sunday’s 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony will be pretty special – with more awards and far more interesting and inspiring speakers (10) than is typical at our annual awards ceremonies.
You can watch the roughly hourlong awards show, which is open to the public, by using this Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87824388418?pwd=CsoznF4wtlLNTYvEotlIpVJkCoGb9I.1
Please log in at 1 p.m. Sunday Aug. 16 Eastern time.
George Orwell is one of only a handful of Prometheus-winning writers to remain world famous and widely read for more than one work of fiction.
Meanwhile, the Prometheus Hall of Fame classic that is perhaps best known around the world is Hans Christian Anderson’s fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
Perhaps still most widely acclaimed for his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell is also frequently referenced and quoted for his satirical parable Animal Farm. (Forget the poorly reviewed 2026 animated film version, which substitutes a trendy and misguided anti-corporate ideology for Orwell’s explicit anti-communist theme.)
Of the 50 works of fantastic fiction that have now been inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, Orwell’s classics and Andersen’s evocative fable rank high among the most notable and enduring.
And that’s why they are frequently referenced in contemporary intellectual debates and commentary – and will continue to be relevant for generations.
