2009 UK Orange Prize Shortlist

Some fine books have failed to make it in the final shake-out for this years Orange Prize. Strongly fancied works such as Michelle de Kretser's, The Lost Dog , Miriam Toews's, The Flying Troutmans,Toni Morrison's, A Mercy and the excellent, The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide, have all been left on the cutting room floor.

Whilst Americans dominate (a bit of a trend with all UK majors so far this year), from Tragic's perspective it is now a race in two between Kamila Shamsie's delicious Burnt Shadows and Home by Marilynne Robinson. The latter has been pipped at the post in both the USA's National Book Awards and the National Book Critics Circle - surely the law of averages? Samantha Harvey's first novel, The Wilderness could provide the boil over.

Tragic previously completely missed the 2009 New Orange Broadband New Writers Award Short list announced on 7th of April. Whoops.

2009 Orange Prize Shortlist

Ellen Feldman: Scottsboro: A Novel (Picador), American, 3rd Novel

Samantha Harvey: The Wilderness (Jonathan Cape), British, 1st Novel

Samantha Hunt: The Invention of Everything Else (HarvillSecker), American, 2nd Novel

Deirdre Madden: Molly Fox's Birthday (Faber and Faber), Irish, 7th Novel

Marilynne Robinson: Home (Virago), American, 3rd Novel

Kamila Shamsie: Burnt Shadows (Bloomsbury), Pakistani/British, 5th Novel

2009 New Orange Broadband New Writers Award Shortlist

An Equal Stillness
Francesca Kay, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Miles from Nowhere
Nami Mun, Virago

The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
Ann Weisgarber, Macmillan New Writing

About the Award

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, awarded annually for the best original full-length novel by a female author of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK in the preceding year.

The winner of the book award receives £30,000, along with a bronze sculpture called the "Bessie" created by artist Grizel Niven, the sister of actor/writer David Niven.

2005 saw the introduction of the new Orange Broadband Award for New Writers which takes the form of a £10,000 bursary, provided by Arts Council England.

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