Vajra Chandrasekera

Vajra Chandrasekera is a Sri Lankan author known for his fantasy and science fiction novels and short stories. His debut novel, The Saint of Bright Doors, won the 2023 Nebula Award for Best Novel His short story "The Translator, at Low Tide" was a finalist for the 2021 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

In 2023, Chandrasekera published his first novel, The Saint of Bright Doors. Amal El-Mohtar, in a review for The New York Times, described the novel as the best book of the year. Jake Casella Brookins, for Locus, described the book as "truly superb" with rich cityscape details and deep investigations of the writing of history and the desire for revolution. Both reviewers noted the novel's stretching of the fantasy genre.

In 2024, Chandrasekera published the novel Rakesfall. Madeline Schultz, for the Chicago Review of Books, praised the book's unique exploration of colonialism and imperialism, but critiqued the descriptions and disorientation between episodes. New York Times and Publishers Weekly reviews noted the book's challenge and payoff, with Publishers Weekly praising the book's lyricism. Helena Ramsaroop, for Strange Horizons, wrote that Rakesfall compellingly shows grief and hope in the pursuit of liberation.

Chandrasekera has placed himself in the New Wave, New Weird, and slipstream literary movements, as well as the blended-genre term science fantasy. He is the author of more than 50 short stories, as well as numerous essays and reviews.

He was one of the 2025-2026 Fellows of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, where he spent time working on his third novel.

Awards and reception Chandrasekera's first novel, The Saint of Bright Doors, won the 2023 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2024 Locus Award for Best First Novel, the 2024 Crawford Award, and the 2024 Ignyte Award for Outstanding Novel – Adult. The book was shortlisted for the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize, and the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Speculative Fiction. It was listed as a New York Times Notable Book, Editors’ Pick, and Best Fantasy of 2023.

Chandrasekera was an editor for the speculative fiction magazine Strange Horizons during the six consecutive years that it was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine.

His second novel, Rakesfall, won the 2024 Otherwise Award and the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize. The novel was also nominated for the 2024 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2025 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It was a New York Times Notable Book of 2024. It was featured on "The Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024" by Esquire and "The Best Books of 2024" by NPR.