A Difficult Decision - But the Right One

I posted the first post to the Orange Prize Project blog in February of 2008...nearly 6 years ago! Since that time, hundreds of reviews have been published here by many bloggers just as enthusiastic as I am about a literary prize for women. Last year the Prize got a new name, but it is still a wonderful celebration of women writers and their work.

But, six years is a long time and there have been a lot of changes and challenges in my life - especially over the last year or so. My energy for blogging has dipped - I no longer have the drive to administer multiple blogs and I no longer want the pressure to maintain this blog.

Because I get the stats, I know there are readers still coming here and reading the reviews. It is a nice resource to readers to have this site...and so, the site will stay open (at least for awhile) and the reviews already posted will remain.

The site will be closed for new posts beginning January 1, 2014. What does that mean? Well, I will be removing all the authors from this site (except myself) beginning December 31st. 

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has contributed to The Orange Prize Project - your insights, reviews, and participation have helped it become a popular blog amongst literary readers. I hope you will choose to keep your reviews posted here, but if you choose to delete any reviews, that needs to happen before December 31st.

I would also like to post a final post at the end of the year with each of your names and a link to your blogs (if you have them) so that readers may still be able to find you and your reviews. I will include any blogger who has posted a review here - even if it was a long time ago! If you want to be included on that list, please drop me an email at caribousmom (at) gmail (dot) com with your name and the name of your blog and a link to your blog site.

Announcing the 2013 Women's Prize Short List

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

NW by Zadie Smith

Which do you think will win?

Follow The Orange Prize Project on Facebook, RSS, or Email

Because many people are going to be impacted by Google Reader's demise in a few months, I thought it might be helpful to some of you on Facebook to be able to follow this blog through Networked Blogs. If you wish to do so, simply visit the widget in our side bar and click on "Follow this Blog." New posts will show up on your newsfeed through the Networked Blogs feature on Face Book.

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2013 Long List Announced

The books nominated for the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction are:

 A Trick I Learned From Dead Men by Kitty Aldridge (Jonathan Cape Ltd, July 2012)

 Alif The Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (Grove Press, June 2012)

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Henry Holt and Co., May, 2012)

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper. November 2012)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Crown, June 2012)

Honour by Elif Shafak (Viking, April 2012)

How Should A Person Be by Sheila Heti (Henry Holt and Co., June 2012)

Ignorance by Michele Roberts (Bloomsbury USA., January 2013)

Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam (Other Press, September 2011)

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (Reagan Arthur Books, April  2013)

Mateship With Birds by Carrie Tiffany (Picador, June 2012)

May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes (Viking Adult, September 2012)

NW by Zadie Smith (Penguin Press HC, September 2012)

The Forrests by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury USA, August 2012)

The Innocents by Francesca Segal (Voice, June 2012)

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (Scribner, July 2012)

 The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber (St. Martin's Press, January 2013)

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu (Hogarth, September 2012)

The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan (Voice, April 2012)

Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple (Little, Brown and Company, December 2012)

New Look

Hello everyone!

I've decided to try a more dynamic look for the blog and I'd love your feedback. You can choose how you view the blog by selecting any one of a number of different looks at the top of the blog. Links and other information continues to be available by using the slide-out feature in the right hand side of the page.

Please let me know if you like this new look - I can always change it back to the way it was before!

The Women's Prize Site and Nominations for 2013

Good morning! 

I just wanted everyone to know that the Women's Prize official site is now back up and running and I've put the link in the right side bar if you want to check it out.

The 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist will be announced on Thursday 14^th March 2013. Do you have any favorites which you hope will make the nomination list?

Orange Prize now to be called Women's Prize

After a four-month hiatus, and a media blackout during the long, wet summer, the literary award formerly known, from 1996 to 2012, as the Orange prize announced the restoration of its original title, the Women's Prize for Fiction (WPF). It would be funded by a group of private benefactors led by Cherie Blair and bestselling writers Joanna Trollope and Elizabeth Buchan. (read the full article here)

The good news is that regardless of what people are going to call this prize, it is not going away any time soon. For now, I'm keeping the challenge name as is...maybe it will change in the future, and if so, I'll get your feedback before doing anything!

By the way, I've deleted the link to the Orange Prize site because it appears that it has been hacked by Malware and can infect your computer...so don't go there. I'll let you know if the site is fixed or a new site opens up.

2012 Orange Prize Winner Announced

 19.15pm, London, 30 May 2012 — American author Madeline Miller has won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction with her debut novel The Song of Achilles (Bloomsbury).

Read the full story HERE.

Announcing the 2012 Short List

The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, today announces the 2012 shortlist:

• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Serpent's Tail) - Canadian; 2nd Novel
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) - Irish; 5th Novel
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) - American; 1st Novel
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (Atlantic Books) - American; 7th Novel
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury) - American; 6th Novel
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding (Bloomsbury) - British; 3rd Novel

Have you read any of these yet? Which do you think will win?

We Have a New Button!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and voted on the new button for this project. The race was tight, but eventually a clear winner emerged. Please feel free to use this button on your blogs and elsewhere with a link back to this blog:

New Graphic Anyone?

We've had the same graphic here on The Orange Prize Project since its inception. And today I was thinking maybe it was time for a change. I would love your input! Please vote in the survey below. I'll close the voting in one week and the majority rules!

**If for some reason you are unable to see the embedded survey, please use this link to vote: Click here to take survey

Announcing the 2012 Long List

Yesterday the Orange Prize judges announced the long list for 2012 which coincided with International Women's Day 2012. Which of these do you think will make the short list? And which do you think will win?

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg (Quercus) - Swedish; 1st Novel
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell (Serpent's Tail) - Irish; 3rd Novel
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen (The Clerkenwell Press) - American; 4th Novel
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Serpent's Tail) - Canadian; 2nd Novel
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) - Irish; 5th Novel
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki (Headline Review) - British; 5th Novel
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (Quercus) - American; 4th Novel
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding (Bloomsbury) - British; 3rd Novel
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (Faber & Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - British; 2nd Novel
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy (Jonathan Cape) - British; 6th Novel
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Harvill Secker) - American; 1st Novel
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) - American; 1st Novel
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (Atlantic Books) - American; 7th Novel
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury) - American; 6th Novel
• There but for the by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) - British; 5th Novel
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard (Alma Books) - British; 2nd Novel
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard (Chatto & Windus) - British; 1st Novel
• The Submission by Amy Waldman (William Heinemann) - American; 1st Novel

Have you read any of these yet? If so, please share your thoughts!

2011 Winner Announced

Tea Obreht's debut novel The Tiger's Wife is this year's winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction!

2011 Short List Announced

The Orange Prize for Fiction short list was announced this morning *drum roll please*....

Room, by Emma Donoghue
The Memory of Love, by Aminatta Forna
Grace Williams Says It Loud, by Emma Henderson
Great House, by Nicole Krauss
The Tiger’s Wife, by Tea Obreht
Annabel, by Kathleen Winter

2011 Long List Announced!

The Orange Prize committee has announced the 2011 Long List:

• 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

Which ones do you think will make the short list? Announcement for that on 12 April 2011

Kingsolver WINS 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction

...Just announced today.

"We chose The Lacuna because it is a book of breathtaking scale and shattering moments of poignancy," Daisy Goodwin, chair of judges said.

Have any of your read The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver yet?

WINNER announced: New Writers Award 2010

The Orange Prize judges announced the winner for the 2010 Award for New Writers...

The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatani

Have any of your read this one yet?

2009 Lists Announced...

The shortlist for the Orange Prize for New Writers 2009 has been announced and includes:

• An Equal Stillness, by Francesca Kay
• Miles From Nowhere, by Nami Mun
• The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, by Ann Weisgarber

Also the longlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 has been announced and includes:

• The Household Guide for Dying, by Debra Adelaide
• Girl in a Blue Dress, by Gaynor Arnold
• Their Finest Hour and a Half, by Lissa Evans
• Blonde Roots, by Bernardine Evaristo
• Scottsboro, by Ellen Feldman
• Strange Music, by Laura Fish
• Love Marriage, by V.V. Ganeshananthan
• Intuition, by Allegra Goodman
• The Wilderness, by Samantha Harvey
• The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt
• The Lost Dog, by Michelle de Kretser
• Molly Fox’s Birthday, by Deirdre Madden
• A Mercy, by Toni Morrison
• The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight, by Gina Ochsner
• Home, by Marilynne Robinson
• Evening is the Whole Day, by Preeta Samarasan
• Burnt Shadows, by Kamila Shamsie
• American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld
• The Flying Troutmans, by Miriam Toews
• The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, by Ann Weisgarber

Look for the shortlist for this prize on April 21st.

Looking Ahead: 2009

Here is the schedule for announcements of award long lists, short lists and winners:

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction & Award for New Writers 2009

17 December 2008
judging panels announced

18 March 2009
Orange Prize for Fiction longlist

7 April 2009
Orange Award for New Writers shortlist

21 April 2009
Orange Prize for Fiction shortlist

1 June 2009
Orange Award for New Writers shortlist event at the Southbank Centre, London

2 June 2009
Orange Prize for Fiction shortlisted writers' event at the Southbank Centre, London

3 June 2009
Awards Ceremony

New Administrator

Thank you to Jill from The Magic Lasso who has agreed to be co-administrator of this blog and challenge. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed keeping up with everything and so am thrilled that Jill will be helping out here! Jill and I will be working together to keep things running smoothly - please don't hesitate to leave us a comment for any questions you may have!