Orange award 2006

[Nightshade]

Scher, logos doe this go here? Ahhwell I know you'll move it if its wrong.

Okay so the longlist was annonced on Monday

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel

Disobedience by Naomi Alderman

Dreams of Speaking by Gail Jones

Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany

Frangipani by Célestine Hitiura Vaite

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Harbor by Lorraine Adams

House of Orphans by Helen Dunmore

Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller

Minaret by Leila Aboulela

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Rape A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates

The Accidental by Ali Smith

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

The Position by Meg Wolitzer

Watch Me Disappear by Jill Dawson

White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenaway

So has anyone read any and what did you think??
EDIT: for more info on the books (http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/opf/longlist.php4)

[Pensive]

I have not read even one novel from this list.

[Nightshade]

Ahh well they are all pretty new, I just found out That Ive read the first few chapters of Beyond black( last year but I ended up returning the book unread as it was exam time :nod: )
Minerat looks good though Ive ordered it and am just waiting for it to arrive. PLus The authors name caught my eye Leila.:D

[papayahed]

What's the Orange award?

[Scheherazade]

Launched in 2005 in partnership with Arts Council England, the Orange Award for New Writers celebrates potential and emerging female writing talent.

http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/news/index.html

[Nightshade]

no thats the new writers not THE orange award.:D
The orange prize/award whatever you want t call it is excluisvley for women writers and is judged only by women.

asked questionsHow did the prize come to be set up?


The founders of the prize were concerned that many of the biggest literary prizes often appeared to over look wonderful writing by women. And, since prizes are so instrumental in telling potential readers about writers, we did think that many novels by women were possibly not being brought to the attention of male and female readers who'd appreciate them.

In January 1992, a group of men and women involved in publishing - journalists, reviewers, agents, publishers, librarians, booksellers - met to decide if there was any way to widen the net and to try to introduce a prize that would be less traditional and that would put readers at the centre.

After a period of research, the committee started to draw up rules and think about the difficult issue of money. We approached Orange in autumn 1995, having already secured endowment of the prize money itself and a work of art - the Bessie - to be presented to each year's winner, in recognistion of the generosity of the anonymous donor. Of that original committee, four women are still involved: Honorary Director and author Kate Mosse, agent Jane Gregory, publisher Susan Sandon and marketing consultant Harriet Hastings.

Orange - with the flare and innovative approach to investment in the arts in Britain, which has characterized all their cultural partnerships since then - decided to sponsor the Prize for Fiction, attracted as much by the educational and lifelong learning initiatives that were planned to run parallel to the main prize. Over a matter of weeks at Christmas 1995, arrangements were made. The prize was announced at the ICA in January 1996 and, after five months of hectic journalistic attack and counter-attack, the first Orange Prize for Fiction was awarded to Helen Dunmore in May for her outstanding A Spell of Winter.

Eight winners, seven educational and research projects, significant financial investment in the business of reading and writing in the UK later … well, as they say, the rest is history.

[sjobson2000]

The only one that I have read is Beyond Black and I most certainly did not enjoy it!
Didn't Marilynne Robinson win the Pulitzer with Gilead?

[beer good]

Didn't Marilynne Robinson win the Pulitzer with Gilead?
She did indeed.

Haven't read any of the books on the list, but I'm a big fan of Oates (though I've read mixed reviews of "Rape"), and I really liked Zadie Smith's first novel (her second was so-so) so I'm planning to read "On Beauty" soon. But nice to see a lot of unknown (to me) names on the list. I hate it when awards only nominate authors I've already read.

[Nightshade]

I tarted and didntlike beyond black either but I think Ill give it another shot

:)