14th Orange Prize for Fiction 2009

9.15pm, London, 3 June 2009 – American author Marilynne Robinson has won the fourteenth Orange Prize for Fiction with her third novel Home (Virago). 

At an awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, hosted by Orange Prize for Fiction Co-Founder and Honorary Director, Kate Mosse, the 2009 Chair of Judges, Fi Glover, presented the author with the £30,000 prize and the ‘Bessie’, a limited edition bronze figurine.  Both are anonymously endowed.

The Orange Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction written by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible. The Orange Prize is awarded to the best novel of the year written in English by a woman.
 

The judges for the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction are:

Fi Glover (Chair), Broadcaster

Bidisha, Writer and Novelist

Sarah Churchwell, Journalist and Academic

Kira Cochrane, Journalist

Martha Lane Fox, Entrepreneur

Previous winners of the Orange Prize are Rose Tremain for The Road Home (2008), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007),  Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006),  Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005), Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004), Valerie Martin for Property (2003), Ann Patchett for Bel Canto (2002), Kate Grenville for The Idea of Perfection (2001), Linda Grant for When I Lived in Modern Times (2000), Suzanne Berne for A Crime in the Neighbourhood (1999), Carol Shields for Larry’s Party (1998), Anne Michaels for Fugitive Pieces (1997), and Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter (1996).

Francesca Kay Wins 2009 Orange Award for New Writers

The Orange Prize for Fiction awards ceremony also saw the announcement of the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers.  Established in 2005 as part of the Orange Prize 10th year celebrations, the emphasis of the Orange Award for New Writers is on emerging talent and the evidence of future potential.  Chair of Judges, Mishal Husain, presented a £10,000 bursary, provided by Arts Council England, to Francesca Kay for her novel An Equal Stillness (Weidenfeld & Nicolson).

The 2009 award ceremony took place in The Clore Ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall.  Guests toasted the winner announcement at a champagne drinks reception courtesy of Taittinger.