2011 Orange Prize for Fiction

The shortlist for the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction was announced today. You can read about the full list of nominees in our previous blog posting. A little drum roll, please......Here are the shortlisted authors:

• Room, Emma Donoghue (Irish)
• The Memory of Love, Aminatta Forna (British/Sierra Leonean)
• Grace Williams Says It Loud, Emma Henderson (British)
• Great House, Nicole Krauss (American)
• The Tiger's Wife, Tea Obreht (Serbian/American)
• Annabel, Kathleen Winter (Canadian)

The Orange Prize for Fiction, in its sixteenth year, celebrates excellence, originality, and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world. This year, three of the finalists (Henderson, Obreht, and Winter) are debut novelists! The winner will be feted in an award ceremony on June 8th and will receive, in addition to a cash prize, a limited edition bronze statue known as "The Bessie." Who do you think the winner will be??

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!

2010 Orange Prize Long List

Yesterday the long list for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction was announced. The Orange Prize, in its second decade, aims to "promote accessibility, originality and excellence" in writing by women. The shortlist will be announced on April 20th, and the award ceremony for the fiction prize, as well as for the Orange Award for New Writers, will take place June 9th. Previous winners of the Orange Prize for Fiction include Marilynne Robinson, Valerie Martin, Ann Patchett, Lionel Shriver, Rose Tremain, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, Zadie Smith, and Ann Michaels. Here are the women on this year's longlist:

• Rosie Alison, The Very Thought of You
• Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal
• Clare Clark, Savage
• Amanda Craig, Hearts and Minds
• Roopa Farooki, The Way Things Look to Me
• Rebecca Gowers, The Twisted Heart
• M.J. Hyland, This is How
• Sadie Jones, Small Wars
• Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna
• Laila Lalami, Secret Son
• Andrea Levy, The Long Song
• Attica Locke, Black Water Rising
• Maria McCann, The Wilding
• Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
• Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy
• Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs
• Monique Roffey, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
• Amy Sackville, The Still Point
• Kathryn Stockett, The Help
• Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger