An Irish writer has been listed for Britain's largest annual award for fiction, the Orange Prize, which is open only to women. Eilis Ni Dhuibhne's novel, The Dancers Dancing, which was published by Blackstaff Press last July, is the only Irish book on the list of 20 including work by Anita Desai and A. L. Kennedy.
A shortlist of six names will be announced on May 8th and the awards ceremony will take place at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, on June 6th when the winner will receive a cheque for £30,000 sterling. Chaired by journalist and broadcaster Polly Toynbee, the judging panel for the five-year-old prize includes historian Dr Amanda Foreman and Mrs Ffion Hague, wife of the Conservative Party leader.
Yesterday Ms Ni Dhuibhne said that, having had no expectation of this, she was "very happy to be included on the list".
Also yesterday, Prof Roy Foster was announced as one of the judges for this year's Booker Prize, Britain's best known annual literary award. Carroll Professor of Irish History at the University of Oxford, he is writing a biography of W.B. Yeats, the first volume of which won the James Tait Black Prize when published in 1998.
The prize's shortlist will be announced in late September and the awards made in London on November 7th.