Shoneyin misses out on Orange Prize
Shonyin had been on the longlist of 20 novels released earlier by the organisers of the prize but failed to make the shortlist announced on Tuesday in London. The five novelists on the shortlist are Emma Donoghue (Irish) for her 7th novel Room, Aminatta Forna (British/Sierra Leonean) for The Memory of Love, Emma Henderson (British) […]
Shonyin had been on the longlist of 20 novels released earlier by the organisers of the prize but failed to make the shortlist announced on Tuesday in London.
The five novelists on the shortlist are Emma Donoghue (Irish) for her 7th novel Room, Aminatta Forna (British/Sierra Leonean) for The Memory of Love, Emma Henderson (British) for Grace Williams Says it Loud, Nicole Krauss (American) for Great House, Téa Obreht (Serbian/American) for The Tiger’s Wife, Kathleen Winter (Canadian) – Annabel.
Three of the five, Henderson, Obreht and Winter, are all in the shortlist with their first novels, while Kraus has been shortlisted for the prize before.
Making the announcement in London, Chair of the judges Bettany Hughes said, “We are proud and pleased to announce our shortlist for the Orange Prize 2011. Our judging meeting fizzed for many hours with conversations about the originality, excellence and readability of the books in front of us – credit to the calibre of submissions this year.”
She continued, “The clarity and human-understanding on the page is simply breathtaking. The number of first-time novelists is an indicator of the rude health of women’s writing. The verve and scope of storylines pays compliment to the female imagination. There are no subjects these authors don’t dare to tackle. Even though the stories in our final choices range from kidnapping to colonialism, from the persistence of love to Balkan folk-memory, from hermaphroditism to abuse in care, the books are written with such a skilful lightness of touch, humour, sympathy and passion, they all make for an exhilarating and uplifting read. This shortlist should give hours of reading pleasure to the wider world.”
The winner of the prize will be announced at a ceremony in London, June 8.