Orange Prize for Fiction 2011

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The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, has announced the 2011 longlist. Celebrating its sixteenth anniversary this year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing throughout the world.

The Prize was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible and is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman in the English language.

This year’s longlist honours both new and well-established writers and features nine first novels. Three authors appearing on this year’s list have previously been longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and a further two authors have been previously shortlisted. The list also includes a former winner of the Orange Award for New Writers and features twelve different publishing imprints.

• Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela
• Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch
• Room by Emma Donoghue
• The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi
• Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
• The London Train by Tessa Hadley
• Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson
• The Seas by Samantha Hunt
• The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna
• Great House by Nicole Krauss
• The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone
• The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
• The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
• Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin
• The Swimmer by Roma Tearne
• Annabel by Kathleen Winter

“What proved a genuine delight this year was the power of observation and sympathy on the page,” commented Bettany Hughes, Chair of Judges. “As a panel we had works of searing originality and epic scale in front of us – plus books that were intimate and sometimes magical”.

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held in The Ballroom at the Royal Festival Hall on 8 June 2011.