ANTRIM AUTHOR Deirdre Madden has been shortlisted for this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction for her seventh novel, Molly Fox’s Birthday.
Madden beat American Nobel-laureate Toni Morrison for a place on the shortlist alongside Ellen Feldman for Feldman's novel Scottsboro, Samantha Harvey for the The Wilderness, Samantha Hunt for The Invention of Everything Else, Marilynne Robinson for Homeand Kamila Shamsie for Burnt Shadows.
Madden, who is married to poet Harry Clifton, is the only author on the list who was previously shortlisted for the prize.
Her novel, One by One in the Darkness, lost out to Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces in 1997.
Molly Fox's Birthdayis narrated by a playwright staying in the Dublin home of her successful, enigmatic actress friend, Molly Fox.
Over the course of the longest day of the year, she recalls her past through a sequence of memories of Molly and their mutual friend Andrew.
Madden has previously won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Hennessy Award for Short Fiction.
Madden is also the author of two books for children, Snakes' Elbowsand Thanks for Telling Me, Emily.
She is a member of Aosdána, and teaches creative writing at Trinity College Dublin.
The Orange Prize for Fiction, established in 1996, is an annual award in the UK for fiction written exclusively by women, and is open to women writers from anywhere in the world who are writing in English.
This year’s winner, chosen by a panel of judges, will be announced on June 3rd at a ceremony in London, where she will be presented with a cheque for £30,000 (€34,000) and a bronze statue known as a Bessie.