The shortlist for the UK’s most prestigious annual book prize celebrating works of fiction by women has been announced. Established in 1996, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, previously known as the Baileys prize and the Orange prize, rewards female authors writing in English.
The Shortlist
- The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
- My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
- Milkman by Anna Burns
- Ordinary People by Diana Evans
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- Circe by Madeline Miller
The list includes several books nominated for other awards. Anna Burns’ Milkman, which featured in Voice’s Top Ten Books of 2018, won the Man Booker Prize last year. Diana Evans’ Ordinary People was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, and The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker’s reworking of the Iliad,for the 2018 Costa Book Awards.
Chair of the Judges and author, Professor Kate Williams said: “It’s a fantastic shortlist; exciting, vibrant, adventurous. We fell totally in love with these books and the amazing worlds they created. These books are fiction at its best – brilliant, courageous and utterly captivating.”
Previous recipients of the Women’s Prize for Fiction include Zadie Smith, Ali Smith, Lionel Shriver and Helen Dunmore. The winner of the 2019 award will be announced on Wednesday 5 June at a ceremony in London.
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