ORANGE BROADBAND AWARD FOR NEW WRITERS ANNOUNCES 2008 SHORTLIST
London, 08 April 2008: The Orange Broadband Award for New Writers, launched in 2005 as part of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, announces this year’s shortlist today.
All first works of fiction, including novels, short story collections and novellas, written in English by a woman of any age or nationality and published as a book in the UK, are eligible. The emphasis of the award is on emerging talent and the evidence of future potential. The winner will receive £10,000 bursary funded by Arts Council England which is intended to help the winning writer pursue their work with greater freedom.
The 2008 shortlist is:
Lauren Groff – The Monsters of Templeton – William Heinemann – American – Novel
Joanna Kavenna – Inglorious – Faber and Faber – British – Novel
Lauren Liebenberg - The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam – Virago – South African - Novel
The judges for the 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers are:
Shami Chakrabarti (Chair), Director of Liberty
Clare Allan, Novelist & shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers 2007
Suzi Feay, Literary Editor of Independent on Sunday
“This was a very strong year for first fiction”, said Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty and Chair of judges. “There were so many worthy contenders for our shortlist that it was a huge challenge to settle on a final three. If there are any preconceptions that women’s fiction dwells only on domestic themes, this shortlist will blow them away. These three books are truly ambitious in scope and reflect the international nature of this prize.”
The Award was launched in 2005 in partnership with Arts Council England. Renewing their commitment to the partnership with Orange, Arts Council England has committed a further £30,000 over the next three years (£10,000 per year) for bursary awards for the winners of the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. By offering a bursary to a novelist or short story writer for her first publication, the Arts Council is able to support the professional development of a writer at a crucial stage in her career.
Authors who have written their first work of fiction can be entered for both the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers in any given year.
Moira Sinclair, Executive Director of Arts Council England, London said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Orange to reward and encourage the best new writing by women in English. Our investment in the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers is just one example of that commitment, and not only champions new voices but catalyses new careers."
Diana Evans took the first ever Orange Broadband Award for New Writers in 2005 for her debut novel, 26A. She has subsequently gone on to win the Decibel Award 2006 at the British Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award 2005.Naomi Alderman won the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers in 2006 and has since gone on to win The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2007 for her first novel, Disobedience. Canadian writer, Karen Connelly, took the Award in 2007 for her novel, The Lizard Cage.
Hattie Magee, Head of Partnerships at Orange UK said, “Optimism and belief in the future is at the heart of what Orange believe in which is why we are so passionate about supporting and rewarding a new generation of fresh and emerging talent. The ensuing success of our past winners demonstrates the importance of investing in the future of female fiction, which would not be possible were it not for our partnership with Arts Council England.”
The winner will be announced at the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction award ceremony which will take place on 4 June 2008 in The Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, central London.
-ENDS-
------
For more information or to arrange an interview with chair Shami Chakrabarti, please contact:
Press Enquiries:
Amanda Johnson or Naomi Li at M&C Saatchi:
Tel: 020 7543 4580/0207 544 3687 or 07715 922 180/07980 697 129
Email: or
Or
Notes to Editors
Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008 Dates for the Diary:
Orange Broadband Readers’ Day at The Bluecoat, Liverpool: 19April
Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction Shortlist Readings at Southbank Centre: 2June
Orange Broadband Award for New Writers event at Southbank Centre: 3 June
About Orange
Orange is a key brand of the France Telecom Group, providing mobile, broadband, fixed, business and entertainment services across Europe. It is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with more than 170 million customers on five continents.
In June, 2006, Orange became the single brand for mobile, broadband and multi-play offers. In addition, Orange Business Services became the new banner for business communications solutions. Orange Business Services is present in 166 countries with network reach in 220.
In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population. At the end of December 2007, Orange had over 16.8 million customers in the UK – 15.6 million active mobile customers and nearly 1.14 million broadband customers.
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.
Further information about Orange and France Telecom can be found on the Orange website at or the France Telecom website at
For further information, call the Orange press office on 0870 373 1500 or email: .
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England works to get more art to more people in more places. We develop and promote the arts across England, acting as an independent body at arm's length from government. Between 2006 and 2008, we will invest £1.1 billion of public money from government and the National Lottery in supporting the arts. This is the bedrock of support for the arts in England.
We believe that the arts have the power to change lives and communities, and to create opportunities for people throughout the country. For 2006 to 2008, we have six priorities: taking part in the arts, children and young people, the creative economy, vibrant communities, internationalism and celebrating diversity.
Arts Council England, Phone: 0845 300 6200, Fax: 020 7973 6590, Textphone: 020 7973 6564, Email: ,
Synopses and Biographies
Lauren Groff
The Monsters of Templeton
William Heinemann
Willie Cooper arrives on the doorstep of her ancestral home in Templeton, New York in the wake of a disastrous affair with her much older, much married archaeology professor. That same day, the discovery of a prehistoric monster in the lake brings a media frenzy to the quiet, picture-perfect town her ancestors founded. Reeling from a broken heart, Willie then learns that the story her mother always told her about her father has all been a lie. He wasn’t the anonymous one night stand that Vi had led her to imagine, but someone else entirely. Someone from Templeton….
Lauren Groff was born in Cooperstown, New York, which is the model for Templeton, her novel’s setting. She has a BA from AmherstCollege and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has won fellowships to the VermontStudioCenter and Yaddo. Groff’s stories have appeared in prestigious literary publications including The Atlantic Monthly and Ploughshares. She lives in Gainesville, Florida with her husband.
Joanna Kavenna
Inglorious
Faber and Faber
Rosa Lane is a dynamic journalist in her thirties, already the picture of London achievement. Her handsome boyfriend is something in politics and her other friends are confident, prosperous and ambitious. But one afternoon, soon after the death of her mother, staring at her computer screen at work, she fails to see the point, walks out of her job – and begins her long fall from modern grace.
Joanna Kavenna was born in Leicester and wrote her first book at 13. Her first book, The Ice Museum was critically acclaimed and was followed by Inglorious. She has held writing fellowships at St Antony’s College, Oxford and St John’s College, Cambridge and her writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the Guardian and Observer, the Times Literary Supplement, the International Herald Tribune, the Spectator and the Telegraph, among other publications.
Lauren Liebenberg
The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam
Virago
Nyree and Cia O’Callohan live on a remote farm in the east of what was Rhodesia in the late 1970s. Beneath the dripping vines of the Vumba rainforest, and under the tutelage of their heretical grandfather, theirs is a seductive childhood laced with African paganism, mangled Catholicism and the lore of the Brothers Grimm.
Their world extends as far as the big fence, erected to keep out the ‘Terrs’ whom their father is off fighting. The two girls know little beyond that until the arrival, from the outside world, of ‘the bastard’, their orphaned cousin Ronin, who is set to poison their idyll for ever.