Orange fiction prize shortlist announced 21-4-10

Books favourite: Orange fiction prize shortlist announced

By Peter Aspden

Published: April 21 2010 03:00 | Last updated: April 21 2010 03:00

Two first-time novelists will battle it out with Hilary Mantel, winner of last year's Man Booker prize, for the Orange Prize for Fiction, writes Peter Aspden.

The shortlist for the women-only prize, disclosed yesterday, includes debutantes Rosie Alison, for her novel The Very Thought of You , and Attica Locke, for Black Water Rising. But the favourite for the prize will be Ms Mantel, whose Wolf Hall also won a National Book Critics Circle award in the US last month.

The other shortlisted titles are A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore; The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver; and The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey.

Daisy Goodwin, chair of the judges, said the shortlist achieved 'the near impossible [feat] of combining literary merit with sheer readability'. She said every book on the shortlist had 'passionate advocates', and added: 'The judges represent the widest range of reading tastes and these are all books for which people in the room were willing to go to the wall.'

Ms Goodwin said only one book, which she would not name, was shortlisted with unanimous approval.

The most surprising omission was The Long Song by Andrea Levy, who is a previous winner of the prize. The two first-time authors share a background in television but come from very different circumstances. Ms Alison grew up in Yorkshire and has directed documentaries. Ms Locke is a US screenwriter whose parents named her after the 1971 Attica prison uprising.

Ms Goodwin said the judges came from a 'refreshingly wide spectrum. There was no literary snobbery at work.' She stirred controversy during the judging when she lamented the preponderance of 'misery literature' among books submitted.

The £30,000 prize will awarded at a ceremony in London's Royal Festival Hall on June 9. Above: Hilary Mantel with a portrait of Thomas Cromwell, the subject of her Wolf Hall Camerapress

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http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/show/feature/orange-2010-opf-shortlist