The 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony is shaping up to be one of the most interesting, thought-provoking and exciting in years.
Ten speakers from around the world have been lined up for the roughly hourlong awards show, which will present the two annual categories for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (the Prometheus Hall of Fame) plus an occasional Special Award –the first Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction.
All Libertarian Futurist Society members, other SF/fantasy fans and the general public are invited to watch the live Zoom event, which will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific time (1 p.m. Eastern time) on Sunday Aug. 16, 2026.
So who are the 10 presenters, winners and other speakers?
By MIchael Grossberg J. Kenton Pierce insists he’s no master craftsman.
“I’m a maladjusted ape with a keyboard and a lifetime subscription to Maladaptive Daydreaming With ADHD,” Pierce wrote in a July post on his Substack column Tales from the Long Night.
Yet, somehow, Pierce’s first novel A Kiss for Damocles won the 2026 Prometheus Award for Best Novel. Moreover, in this past year’s highly competitive process, Pierce’s novel beat out four other widely admired and first-rate novels ranked as finalists, each written by a well-respected previous Best Novel winner.
“I’m still having some trouble wrapping my brain around this. I’ve read in many places over the years that the conventional wisdom is thus: a writer’s first novel is mediocre at best, and even that’s considered unlikely. Yet here I am, sitting on a debut novel that’s placed ahead of authors who’ve written some of my favorites,” Pierce wrote.
One would reasonably expect any writer who becomes an awards finalist to feel disappointed if they don’t win – even in a year with especially strong competition.
Dave Freer with his 2023 Prometheus Awards Best Novel plaque for Cloud-Castles (Photo courtesy of Freer)
Thus, it seemed a bit strange to learn that Dave Freer was relieved that he didn’t win the Best Novel category this year.
Freer won his first Prometheus Award for Best Novel in 2023 for Cloud-Castles. So why wouldn’t he want to win a second for Storm-Dragon, his 2026 Best Novel finalist?
“I was actually a little worried that STORM-DRAGON would win the Prometheus,” Freer told his publisher Raconteur Press in a special awards-news update on their Substack column.
Brave New World, the classic dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) warning about a future “soft tyranny” under a seemingly benevolent State, will be the 50th work to be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
The Libertarian Futurist Society is pleased to announce that Huxley’s two grandchildren Tessa and Trevenan Huxley and Pulitzer-winning author Jack Miles will accept the posthumous award following the keynote speech by Ilya Somin, guest presenter of the Hall of Fame category.
The Huxleys and Miles, co-trustee of the Aldous and Laura Huxley Literary Trust, will deliver acceptance speeches at the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony, roughly an hourlong live Zoom event beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday (Eastern time) Aug. 16 and open to the public.
Tessa Huxley, Aldous Huxley’s granddaughter (Photo courtesy of Tessa Huxley)
“I was delighted to learn of the honor being bestowed upon my grandfather,” Tessa Huxley said in an email.
“I am pleased that others find Brave New Worldas important and relevant as I do. I re-read Brave New World early this year and was really struck by the seductive nature of his imaginary world and that of the USA… In particular, in 2026 where Americans seem endlessly obsessed by consumerism and pleasure seeking and apparently rather proud of it.”
How did Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress give leading libertarian thinker David Friedman the radical idea that society can develop just laws and functional legal systems without government?
What life events, travels, famous scientists and space projects helped shape the late Poul Anderson’s 1983 novel Orion Shall Rise, the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner?
How did the late Michael Flynn’s childhood lead him to become an award-winning science fiction writer?
Why does Flynn’s CAEZIK SF & Fantasy publisher view him as one of the most underestimated sf writers of his generation?
What Prometheus-winning sf/fantasy authors rank high among Friedman’s favorites – and why?
To find out, watch the recorded YouTube video of the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony:
“I think Michael was one of the most underrated authors in the genre… his work holds up to some of the best science fiction I’ve ever read.
— Shahid Mahmud, publisher of CAEZIK SF & Fantasy
Novelist Michael Flynn at an sf convention several decades ago (File photo)
Introduction: CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, a company led by Shahid Mahmud, published Michael Flynn’s last and posthumous novel In the Belly of the Whale, the 2025 Prometheus winner for Best Novel – and the first novel originally published by CAEZIK to win a Prometheus Award.
In his comments during the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, Mahmud paid tribute to Flynn, who died in 2023 at 75 after an impressive career writing science fiction. Winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award, Flynn was nominated seven times for the Hugo Award (including Best Novel for Eifelheim) and eight times for the Prometheus Award, winning three times for Best Novel.
Astrid Anderson Bear, daughter of the late SFWA Grand Master Poul Anderson (1926-2001) and wife of the late sf author Greg Bear, accepted the Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction for Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise.
Astrid Anderson Bear (Photo courtesy of Bear)
Astrid spoke during the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, presented live via Zoom on Aug. 30, 2025, and recorded to post later on Youtube and on the Prometheus Blog.
By Astrid Anderson Bear
Thank you to the members of the Libertarian Futurist Societyfor voting to induct my dad’s novel, Orion Shall Rise, into the Prometheus Awards Hall of Fame.
Published in 1983, this wide ranging book is in his Maurai universe, a loosely connected seriesof works set on a post-apocalyptic future Earth.
Orion Shall Rise takes placeroughly 500 years in our future, and brings together characters from the principal powers on the planet: the Domain, controlling much ofwestern Europe by means of a huge aerostat, Skyholm, that has survived since the nuclear wars hundreds of years previously; the Maurai Federation, a coalition of Pacific Islanders centered in New Zealand; and the Northwest Union and its powerful Lodges in thePacific Northwest of North America.
“He lived exactly the life he wanted to live.”
– Kevin Flynn, about his brother Michael
Two-time Prometheus winner Michael Flynn (Creative Commons license)
Michael Flynn won his third Prometheus Award for Best Novel for his posthumously published In the Belly of the Whale.
Here is the text of the eloquent, poignant and very personal acceptance speech by Kevin Flynn, brother of the late novelist, who died in 2023 at 75. The speech was recorded and presented Aug. 30, 2025, during the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony.
By Kevin Flynn
On behalf of Michael Flynn’s family, his daughter Sara, his son Dennis, his grandchildren Noelle, Zaid, and Adam, and his brothers Sean and Patrick, it is my privilege to be chosen by them to speak here today and accept this award. I know that Michael would be deeply moved by this recognition, which will serve as the capstone of his distinguished science fiction bibliography. Thank you so much for recognizing our brother’s work.
As Michael was nominated for the Prometheus Awards nine times, chosen as a Best Novel finalist eight of those times, and won the Best Novel award now for the third time, you know well of Michael’s passion for learning, for liberty, for liberation of the mind and pushing back on authority in pursuit of freedom of thought and expression.
For those of us who knew him so well, we know he would be reluctant to display his pride as publicly and shamelessly as I am going to do on his behalf. That was simply who our big brother was. But he was so much more, and I hope to use this short time to tell you what kind of human our brother was.
How can science fiction and fantasy help people envision a freer, better future?
Can a grippingly realistic novel about near-future space commercialization play a role in transforming dreams of such progress into scientific and economic fact?
How important is humor in exposing and surviving oppression and tyranny?
Such are among the fascinating and fertile questions explored by SF authors and freedom-loving SF/fantasy fans during the recent 44th annual Prometheus Awards ceremony.
Airing live Aug. 25, 2024, the half-hour-long ceremony honored Daniel Suarez, winner of the 2024 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for Critical Mass; and the late great Terry Pratchett, whose comic-fantasy Discworld novel The Truth was inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.
Editor’s note: As part of our coverage of the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony, the Prometheus Blog is posting a variety of reports and the full texts of all the speeches.
Terry Pratchett (Creative Commons license)
Here are the remarks of LFS President William H. Stoddard, a long-time Terry Pratchett fan. Stoddard stepped in to accept the 2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame for the late great Pratchett (1948-2015), whose Discworld comic-fantasy novel The Truth was inducted into the 2024 Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.
Before his death, Pratchett was able to attend and speak at the 2003 Prometheus ceremony at the Worldcon, when he won his first Prometheus Award for Best Novel for Night Watch.
