From the longlist of 20 books, today a shortlist of five has been announced, for the 17th annual Orange Prize for women’s writing.
Set up to acknowledge and celebrate women’s contribution to storytelling the Award celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing throughout the world. It is awarded to a novel written by a woman in the English language.
Last year the award was won by Téa Obreht for The Tiger’s Wife and previous winners have included Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna, Andrea Levy’s A Small Island and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun, which is currently being made into a film.
This year the shortlist includes:
Esi Edugyan ‘Half Blood Blues’ Canadian 2nd Novel
Anne Enright ‘The Forgotten’ Irish 5th Novel
Georgina Harding ‘Painter of Silence’ British 3rd Novel
Madeline Miller ‘The Song of Achilles’ American 1st Novel
Cynthia Ozick ‘Foreign Bodies’ American 7th Novel
Ann Patchett ‘State of Wonder’ American 6th Novel
Short Synopses and Biographies can be read here.
The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 30 May 2012.
I haven’t read any on the list yet, but I have Ann Patchett’s ‘State of Wonder’ on the shelf and I have been eyeing up ‘Half Blood Blues’ for some time.
And you? Have you read any of the titles from either the short or the long list yet, or planning to?
Word by Word 