TORONTO — Julia Elliott’s eerie short story collection “Hellions” has won the US$150,000 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.
“Hellions” includes elements of horror, Southern gothic and folklore, and jurors praise it for taking “no half-measures,” saying “every sentence of Hellions crackles or crawls.”
The book includes stories about a teen discovering her power, a young woman who goes up against a shape-shifting older professor and a nun working on a forbidden manuscript.
Elliott was celebrated at a gala in Toronto on Tuesday night.
The award is the largest English-language literary prize in the world for women and non-binary authors, and writers from Canada and the United States both qualify.
The shortlisted authors, who receive US$12,500 apiece, were Quiara Alegría Hudes for “The White Hot,” Lee Lai for “Cannon,” Megha Majumdar for “A Guardian and a Thief” and Sonya Walger for “Lion.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2026.
Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press
