Orange Prize Loses Sponsorship
UK mobile services company Orange has announced today it is withdrawing its sponsorship of the Orange Prize for Fiction, a prestigous literary prize celebrating the contribution of women writers. Orange has supported the prize for 17 years but the company has decided to concentrate its sponsorship activities on film rather than literature. Organizers of the prize plan to continue with a new sponsor.
The Orange Prize is open to all women writers regardless of nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter. Each year the winner receives £30,000 and a bronze statue called The Bessie. Past winners have included Canadian writers Anne Michaels for her novel Fugitive Pieces and Carol Shields for Larry’s Party.
This year’s finalists are:
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Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
eBook
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
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Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding
(to be published in Canada in August 2012)
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
The 2012 winner will be announced on May 30.
Related Page:
Orange Prize Award Page–winners and finalists since 2007
2 thoughts on “Orange Prize Loses Sponsorship”
What a shame! Keep us posted on who takes up the sponsorship. Women writers need this prize.
Kate Mosse, author and co-founder of the prize, believes that they will find a new sponsor.
“We are in active discussions with a number of potential new brand partners and look forward to the start of another exciting chapter for the Prize.”