Oyinkan Braithwaite has made the shortlist for the UK’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 announced on April 29, 2019.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary honours. It is awarded annually 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. Previous winners of the prize include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Zadie Smith, and Ali Smith.
The 16 novel longlist for this year’s edition was announced on March 4 with Oyinkan Braithwaite and Akwaeke Emezi making the cut. From these novels, there were 6 who would make the cut of the judges Chaired by author, historian, and Professor of history Prof Kate Williams. The others on the panel are journalist and critic Arifa Akbar; columnist, broadcaster and author Dolly Alderton; campaigner and psychotherapist Leyla Hussein; and digital entrepreneur Sarah Wood.
Chair of the Judges, Professor Kate Williams, said: “It’s a fantastic shortlist; exciting, vibrant, adventurous. We fell totally in love with these books and the amazing worlds they created. These books are fiction at its best – brilliant, courageous and utterly captivating.”
On the shortlist announced is Oyinkan Braithwaite whose novel My Sister, the Serial Killer has been making waves on the African literary circuit in recent times. Also featuring is Diana Evans Ordinary People; Evans who has a Nigerian background is one of the 200 women featured in the New Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby. Here is the full list of those who were shortlisted.
- The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker.
- My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.
- Milkman by Anna Burns.
- Ordinary People by Diana Evans.
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.
- Circe by Madeline Miller.
The winner of the prize will be revealed on 5 June.
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