The Women's Prize for Fiction was launched in 1996, in response to a Booker prize shortlist which didn't include a single woman writer. It is awarded annually, and open to any full-length novel written in English.
It's a prize that has continued to generate controversy. Some argue that opening a prize exclusively to women writers is sexist and discriminatory. Others point out that the literary world has a long way to go before it represents male and female writers equally, and that a recent survey suggests the world of books is still dominated by male writers and reviewers. Giving increased space and prominence to women writers and reviewers goes a little way towards redressing that imbalance.
Previous winners have included Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for Half of a Yellow Sun, her brilliant novel about the Nigerian civil war, and Lionel Shriver, for We Need to Talk About Kevin - the story of a school shooting told from the perspective of the perpetrator's mother: written back in 1997, but still, alas, horribly topical today. This year's longlist includes an amazing range of novels - from Nicola Barker's H(A)PPY, a satire on the information age, to Sarah Schmidt's See What I Have Done, which tells the tale of axe-murderer Lizzie Borden, to Kamila Shamsie's reworking of Antigone, Home Fire. You can find a complete list of the books nominated here - the shortlist will be announced in April.
And following Tuesday's post, we're also adding a couple more recommendations of excellent books by contemporary women writers.
Left of the Bang by Claire Lowdon
Recommended by Mr Gardner
Tamsin's just starting out and already life's a bit of a disappointment. She's not quite talented enough to make it as a professional pianist and her love life is far from satisfying. Perhaps she should swap impotent Callum for army officer Chris and live a little? But he's in a bit of a weird relationship with anorexic Leah, and anyway he'll soon be on tour in Afghanistan. Whatever choice she makes, it's as if she's fated to be unfulfilled! It must be her parents' fault - although it's tricky to say exactly how...
Lowdon's first novel is a scathing satire of young middle class Londoners, their social pretensions, facile angst and blithe unawareness of life outside their narrow circle. Only their extreme narcissism and air of entitlement shields them from a full awareness of the crippling emptiness and superficiality of their lives... for now.
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Recommended by Miss McLaughlin
Zadie Smith’s third novel, On Beauty, re-engineers (Smith refers to paying homage to) E.M. Forster’s Howards End. Broadly speaking, the novel explores the interwoven fates of two families: the eclectic Belseys (living in a Massachusetts college town, university professor Father and administrator mother plus three children: Jerome, Zora and Levi) and the conservative Kippses (living in London, intellectual Sir Monty and Carlene Kipps and children Victoria and Michael).
And following Tuesday's post, we're also adding a couple more recommendations of excellent books by contemporary women writers.
The Children's Book by A S Byatt
Recommended by Dr Hudson
The Children’s Book is anything but a book for children – some may think it an odd recommendation for a school book blog – but it’s a magnificent and impressive achievement and I believe this dark and powerful novel will stand the test of time.
Byatt focuses with enormous skill on the nature of creativity in compelling, though not always pleasant, accounts of English artistic life at the beginning of the twentieth century: folk-tales, the early days of the V&A museum, the complicated lives of a disparate group of artists, Edwardian attitudes towards children, as well as the development of the suffrage movement. It’s not a short read, but it’s enormously rewarding. This reader is already planning to read it again.
Left of the Bang by Claire Lowdon
Recommended by Mr Gardner
Tamsin's just starting out and already life's a bit of a disappointment. She's not quite talented enough to make it as a professional pianist and her love life is far from satisfying. Perhaps she should swap impotent Callum for army officer Chris and live a little? But he's in a bit of a weird relationship with anorexic Leah, and anyway he'll soon be on tour in Afghanistan. Whatever choice she makes, it's as if she's fated to be unfulfilled! It must be her parents' fault - although it's tricky to say exactly how...
Lowdon's first novel is a scathing satire of young middle class Londoners, their social pretensions, facile angst and blithe unawareness of life outside their narrow circle. Only their extreme narcissism and air of entitlement shields them from a full awareness of the crippling emptiness and superficiality of their lives... for now.
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Recommended by Miss McLaughlin
Zadie Smith’s third novel, On Beauty, re-engineers (Smith refers to paying homage to) E.M. Forster’s Howards End. Broadly speaking, the novel explores the interwoven fates of two families: the eclectic Belseys (living in a Massachusetts college town, university professor Father and administrator mother plus three children: Jerome, Zora and Levi) and the conservative Kippses (living in London, intellectual Sir Monty and Carlene Kipps and children Victoria and Michael).
The simmering feud between the two fathers is antagonised, firstly, by the eldest Belseys' son taking an apprenticeship (and almost a wife) with the Kipps in London and then the Kipps’ arrival in the same town – and university - as the Belseys. Smith masterfully orchestrates the colliding fates of her cast of characters and, with a wonderful ability to make everyday details beautiful through the attention she gives to them and with a keen wit, presents the far-reaching effects of these collisions. The novel builds on Forster’s themes, blending in race to exploration of class, beauty and relationships. The opening is a little clunky, keep going….
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