The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction is the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman. Now in its thirteenth year, the £30,000 Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing
Best-selling author Rose Tremain has won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction for The Road Home, a novel about immigration. read the report in todays Daily Telegraph

At an awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, hosted by Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction Co-Founder and Honorary Director, Kate Mosse, the 2008 Chair of Judges, Kirsty Lang, presented the author with the £30,000 prize and the ‘Bessie’, a limited edition bronze figurine. Both are anonymously endowed.

Kirsty Lang, Chair of Judges, said: “The judges felt that this was a powerfully imagined story and a wonderful feat of emotional empathy told with great warmth and humour.”

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction written by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible. The Orange Prize is awarded to the best novel of the year written in English by a woman.

The 2008 award ceremony took place in The Ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall. Guests toasted the announcement of the winner at a champagne drinks reception courtesy of Taittinger.
Joanna Kavenna wins the 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers
The judges for the 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers are:

Shami Chakrabarti (Chair), Director of Liberty

Clare Allan, Novelist

Suzi Feay, Literary Editor of Independent on Sunday

The winner of the inaugural Orange Broadband Award for New Writers in 2005 was Diana Evans for her novel 26a. Since her win, Diana has gone on to achieve notable success in a number of other literary awards. Naomi Alderman took the award the following year for her novel Disobedience and has since gone on to win The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2007. Canadian writer Karen Connelly took the Award in 2007 for her novel The Lizard Cage.
British debut author Joanna Kavenna has won the 2008 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers with her novel Inglorious (Faber & Faber).

Chair of Judges, Shami Chakrabarti, presented the £10,000 bursary, provided by Arts Council England, to the author at the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London.

Shami Chakrabarti, Chair of Judges said: ”Dostoevsky meets Bridget Jones in this glorious story of pain, humour and hope. Joanna Kavenna combines courage and elegance in creating an anti-heroine for the 21st century.”

Launched in 2005 as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, the emphasis of the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers is on emerging talent and the evidence of future potential.

All first works of fiction – including novels, short story collections and novellas, written in English by a woman of any age or nationality and published as a book in the UK – are eligible. First time authors can be entered for both the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers in any one year.

The Award was launched in 2005 in partnership with Arts Council England. Renewing their commitment to the partnership with Orange, Arts Council England recently committed a further £30,000 towards bursary awards for the winners of the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. By offering a bursary to a novelist or short story writer for her first publication, the Arts Council is able to support the professional development of a writer at a crucial stage in her car

Midlands based writer Sukhraj Kaur Randhawa has won the seventh Orange/Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Competition 2008.

Judge and Editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Lucy Yeomans, presented a cheque for £1,000 to Sukhraj Kaur Randhawa at the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre in central London. The winning story will be published in the October edition of Harper’s Bazaar magazine.

Now in its seventh year, the Orange/Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Competition forms part of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction literary portfolio and aims to support unpublished writers at the beginning of their careers.

Previous winners have gone on to achieve notable literary success including Clare Allan, who won the first ever Orange/Harpers Bazaar Short Story Competition in 2001. Her debut novel, Poppy Shakespeare, was published by Bloomsbury in 2006 and went on to be longlisted for the 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. Earlier this year, the novel was dramatised for television and broadcast to acclaim on Channel 4.

Entrants to this year’s competition were asked to write a story of no more than 2,000 words on the theme of ‘Ambition’. Entries were received from all over the world and three finalists attended a writing masterclass held at the offices of HarperCollins in London.

Commenting on the winner, Amanda Ridout, Chair of Judges, said “The judges congratulate our winner – Sukhraj Kaur Randhawa – for her wonderful story with its exotic setting, powerful imagery and colourful and engaging characters. We look forward to seeing how her writing career develops and wish her every success. We would also like to highly commend the other two finalists who gave vivid and interesting interpretation to the theme of ‘ambition’.”

The two other shortlisted authors, Kirstin Zhang and Julie Ma, will receive £500 each. Full story and past winners go to the Orange news website.

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