USC English and Gender Studies professor Julia Elliott never expected to give the speech she was told to write as a finalist for the 2026 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.
Then, on June 2,sitting next to her daughter, she found herself emotional and in shock to hear her name called as the winner.
Following that moment, Elliott became focused on the practicalities of giving her speech before moving to the reception where many people told her how much they loved "Hellions".
The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction is an award for women and non-binary authors in the United States and Canada, named after award-winning author Carol Shields of "The Stone Diaries" and "Larry's Party". A jury determines a long list of finalists, which is condensed to a short list from which they choose the winner.
Elliott was the fourth winner of the Carol Shields Prize, with a $150,000 award.
She won the award for her short story collection, "Hellions", with genre-bending stories from southern gothic to science fiction, about mainly girls who grew up in the south and according to Elliott, women who don’t fit society's mold. Prior to publication, there was a version of the collection not sold to a publisher, but in 2023 Elliott decided to publish with the unifying theme of the hellions.
“[It] goes back to my childhood growing up in rural South Carolina,” Elliott said. “If you were a bad kid, authority figures would call you a hellion, which meant you were a mischievous child, up to no good.”
Ron Cox, the executive director of Elliott’s department, Palmetto College, said Elliott draws from her experiences and imagination to create enthralling stories. He said he admires her drawing on her South Carolinian roots while writing stories that are accessible to everyone.
“She's writing what she knows, but the lessons and the whole feeling, the twists on it, go far beyond just being in South Carolina,” Cox said.
Elliott said winning for "Hellions" was special because it’s not mainstream fiction. She said following the attention "Hellions" has received, she hopes it will inspire her to not tone down her stories.
“There were a couple of stories in the book where I went a little wacky and took some risks, and I thought, ‘wow, this is going too far,’” Elliott said. “Maybe it wasn't, and so maybe it'll inspire me to just keep taking risks and keep being weird.”
Cox said he’s glad to see Elliott receive recognition not just as a professor, but as a literary scholar. Palmetto College offers flexibility and convenience to those looking for degrees through offerings such as online classes. He hopes the book will draw more interest to Palmetto College as well as having broader results.
“I hope that this will spark interest not only in us, but from an academic standpoint, in the scholarship that all of our faculty engage in and are expected to engage in,” Cox said. “Quite frankly, if a really cool book of quirky, eerie stories gets more people to read, the academic in me says absolutely yes.”
Elliott said she is unsure how having this award will impact how she teaches in the classroom, but Cox hopes that the impact of her work and teaching will inspire students to have a similar impact on others. He said everyone in Palmetto College is amazed by her accomplishment.
“We're incredibly proud of her accomplishments and, I am honored to be able to call her a colleague, a fellow faculty member and a friend,” Cox said.
Elliott said that winning the award has had a huge impact by getting more attention for "Hellions" than it would have otherwise had.
The award meant a lot to Elliott, who has been publishing short fiction since 2006. She said it came with a feeling of validation for her work.
“I feel like it was a big career milestone, some validation after all these years, but even if I hadn't won the award, I still love writing,” Elliott said. “I love the craft of writing, and it's one of the most important things in my life.”