Wednesday, April 21, 2010

2010 Orange Fiction Prize Short List

Last month we told you the long list for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction. Yesterday the short list for this year's prize was announced. The winner will be announced on June 9th. The prize is open to any full length novel, written in English by a woman of any nationality, provided that the novel is published for the first time in the United Kingdom between April 1st of the year before the prize is awarded and March 31st of the year in which the prize is awarded. Why Orange, you might ask? Why not the Green Prize? Or the Mauve Prize? Or the Lavender Prize? Because Orange is the name of the UK-based communications company that has sponsored the prize since its inception in 1996 (when Helen Dunmore won for A Spell of Winter).

Many of my favorite books and authors can be found on Orange Fiction Prize short lists and long lists. One of the books I thoroughly enjoyed -- Small Island, by Andrea Levy (winner of the 2004 Prize) -- will premiere in a Masterpiece Theater adaption next Monday, April 26, at 9 pm on OPB.

Here are this year's six finalists:
  • Rosie Alison, The Very Thought of You
  • Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna
  • Attica Locke, Black Water Rising (this just came out in paperback yesterday)
  • Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (this one is raking in the awards and nominations!)
  • Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs 
  • Monique Roffey, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle.
Congratulations to each of these women for her accomplishments!

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