At the time it was set up the considerable achievements of women novelists were often passed over by the major literary Prizes.
The founders of the Orange Prize for Fiction wanted to do something about that. Which they did, very successfully.
Now into its second decade — as well as making a massive, practical difference to the winners — the Orange Prize for Fiction is firmly established and has made a major impact on the literary landscape.
According to analysis of Nielsen BookScan sales figures, the bestselling Orange Prize winners have outsold the bestselling winners of the Booker prize.
The bestselling Orange Prize winner is Andrea Levy's Small Island (Headline Review) with sales of 834,958, followed by Lionel Shriver We Need to Talk About Kevin (Serpent's Tail — 646,373) and Half of a Yellow Sun (Fourth Estate — 525,438) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Only one Booker winning book-Life of Pi with sales of more than 1m copies-has outsold any of these titles over that period. The next closest are Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger(Atlantic) and Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate) with sales of 512,093 and 439,601 respectively.
When setting up the Prize, the founders wanted to celebrate women's critical views as well as their writing. And it makes an interesting point of difference with other Prizes. However the organisers have run parallel mixed panels and youth panels trying to see if there are any differences in the ways men and women judge literature.
The winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction receives £30,000, and a limited edition bronze figurine called the 'Bessie' (both anonymously endowed). Created by the artist Grizel Niven, the 7.5 inch figure of a standing woman is cast in bronze once a year and presented to the winning author, along with her cheque, at the Award Ceremony.
A full list of all our previous winners, longlists, shortlists and judges may be found in the 'Archive' section.
Orange launched Orange Award for New Writers in 2005 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Orange Prize supported by the Arts Council who funded a bursary of £10,000 for the winner. Funding from the Arts Council came to an end in 2010 and Orange decided that this was good moment to review their sponsorships and see if they could find alternative and more effective ways of promoting new fiction on year round basis. The launch of the Orange Book Club created an exciting opportunity for a new partnership with Waterstones which is called 'Orange New Writers ' and launches in March 2011. This is a new partnership between Orange and Waterstone 's and is not directly linked to the Orange Prize for Fiction.