Orange Prize 2011

[TGS]

The longlist for the Orange prize was announced today:

* Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Sudanese; 3rd Novel
* Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate) - British; 10th Novel
* Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
* The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury) - Indian; 1st Novel
* Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber) - British; 6th Novel
* A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair) - American; 4th Novel
* The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury) - British/Sierra Leonean; 2nd Novel
* The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape) - British; 4th Novel
* Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre) - British; 1st Novel
* The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair) - American; 1st Novel
* The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
* Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking) - American; 3rd Novel
* The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus) - American; 3rd Novel
* The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Serbian/American; 1st Novel
* The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking) - American; 1st Novel
* Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent's Tail) - British; 1st Novel
* Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus) - American; 1st Novel
* The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail) - British/Nigerian; 1st Novel
* The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press) - British; 4th Novel
* Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape) - Canadian; 1st Novel

Link here

[SlowRain]

Not a lot of familiar names on there. Well, not familiar to me, anyway.

[Barty]

I've only read Visit from Goon Squad (very good) and Room (reading now; good but emotionally harrowing.). I've read good things about Tiger's Wife. Most of the rest I've never heard of.

[soondai]

Room was a great concept, but the writer just wasn't up to the challenge.

[queentess]

For those not familiar with the award (....me)

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

I think I might have heard of The Pleasure Seekers. Maybe. In passing.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by soondai

Room was a great concept, but the writer just wasn't up to the challenge.

Mmm, it was one of those books that really needed my "page 70 promise", (if I start a book I promise to give it until at least page 70), the narratorial voice seemed too contrived to me. In the end I'm glad I stuck with it...perhaps not the best novel I shall read this year but worth a few hours of anybody's time I thought,

[TGS]

Originally Posted by queentess

For those not familiar with the award (....me)

Sorry, being a Brit and perceiving the UK to be at the centre of the literary universe I just assumed everyone knew what the Orange Prize is

[MikeB1972]

You know, if we had an award for the best fiction by a man, this thread would be full of comments saying it's completely sexist and unjust

[TGS]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

You know, if we had an award for the best fiction by a man, this thread would be full of comments saying it's completely sexist and unjust

And would those making such comments be right, and if they were right would it follow that the Orange Prize is sexist and unjust?

[queentess]

Originally Posted by TGS

Sorry, being a Brit and perceiving the UK to be at the centre of the literary universe I just assumed everyone knew what the Orange Prize is

I just assumed I hadn't heard of it because I'm not into lit.

Originally Posted by TGS

And would those making such comments be right, and if they were right would it follow that the Orange Prize is sexist and unjust?

Do you really want to go there?

I'll give you my very bland and middle-of-the-road response: It's sexist in that it is open only to one sex. But does that make it unjust? I don't think so. But I wouldn't complain if I saw a male-centered list. Then again, males tend to dominate the field... and isn't that whole point of the list?

[amward]

Originally Posted by soondai

Room was a great concept, but the writer just wasn't up to the challenge.

Don't say that, it's going to be a book club book for me in a couple of months.