Orange Prize for Fiction, 2000

The Orange Prize for Fiction is the UK’s largest annual book award for fiction, celebrating excellence, originality and accessibility. Any woman writing in English--whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter--is eligible.

Linda Grant has won the Orange Prize for Fiction 2000 with When I Lived In Modern Times (Granta). The £30,000 prize and the 'Bessie' were presented to the author on 6 of June at a party at the Victoria & Albert Museum by Polly Toynbee, the 2000 Chair of Judges.

Polly Toynbee, Chair of Judges, said: "Set in Palestine of 1946 under the thumb of the British, this is an evocation of a time of extraordinary hope and optimism, building a new Jerusalem in the desert. Grant creates a grand theme out of a host of minute observations of sharp-eyed precision, a writer of huge talent."

The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK's largest annual book award for fiction, celebrates its fifth birthday this year. The Orange prize honors excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing, and is awarded to the best novel written by a woman and published in the UK. The prize money and the limited edition bronze, sculpted by Grizel Niven, are both anonymously endowed.

The Judges.

The judges for the 2000 Orange Prize are: Polly Toynbee (Chair), Guardian columnist and broadcaster; Claire Beaumont, Deputy Manager at Waterstone's on Deansgate, Manchester; Bonnie Greer, novelist, playwright and critic; Ffion Hague, Director Leonard Hull International plc and Trustee of the British Council; and Dr. Amanda Foreman, writer and historian.

Previous winners of the Orange Prize for Fiction are Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter (1996), Anne Michaels for Fugitive Pieces (1997), Carol Shields for Larry's Party (1998) and Suzanne Berne for A Crime in the Neighborhood (1999).

Denise Lewis, Head of Corporate Communications and Sponsorship at Orange plc, said: "The Orange Prize for Fiction continues to be one of the most challenging, controversial and dynamic literary prizes. It has succeeded in addressing the real issues, that is, the place of women in fiction writing. Linda Grant's winning novel is testament to the continuing success of this prize."

The prize is sponsored by Orange,^TM the largest and fastest-growing digital mobile phone network in the UK.

The Short List Winners:

Author	Title	Publisher
Judy Budnitz	If I Told You Once	Flamingo
Linda Grant	When I Lived In Modern Times	Granta
Eilis Ni Dhuibhne	The Dancers Dancing	Blackstaff Press
Zadie Smith	White Teeth	Hamish Hamilton
Elizabeth Strout	Amy and Isabelle	Simon & Schuster
Rebecca Wells	Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood	Macmillan

Interviews:

More Information:

Orange Prize for Fiction Official Site

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