Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀̀ has made the shortlist for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2017 announced on April 4th, 2017.
The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction is considered by many to be the leading prize aimed at celebrating women fiction writers with the winning author receiving £30,000 in prize money. The prize is annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year. There has only had one African winner for the prize; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for her epic novel Half of a Yellow Sun in 2007.
The judges of this year’s edition of prize yesterday announced those who are in the running for the prize from a longlist that included African writers Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀̀ and Yewande Omotoso. Making the shortlist was our own Adébáyọ̀̀.
“It has been a great privilege to Chair the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction in a year which has proved exceptional for writing of both quality and originality,” said Tessa Ross, 2017 Chair of Judges. “It was therefore quite a challenge to whittle this fantastic longlist of 16 books down to only six… These were the six novels that stayed with all of us well beyond the final page.”
The shortlisted books are as follows:
- Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀̀
- The Power Naomi Alderman
- The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
- The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
- First Love by Gwendoline Riley
- Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
The winner will be revealed at an awards ceremony hosted in the Clore Ballroom at the Royal Festival Hall in the UK on June 7, 2017.
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