Orange prize for Literature

I've been too angry to blog about this. I can't believe Orange is no longer sponsoring the women-only Prize for Fiction. In terms of cultural femicide, this is as big a blow as one can get. The Orange Prize was also a big part of my plan for #readingonlybookswrittenbywomen. I'm rather gutted that Orange have withdrawn from it (although twitter is awash with rumours of Apple sponsoring it next. Let's hope not until after Apple and Amazon get thoroughly thwacked for over-charging on e-books). In fact, I'd be okay with Amazon being made responsible for this prize and doubling the prize money (and doubling the long-list and being forced to give those writers prize money too) as punishment for failing to pay tax (Obviously, whilst being forced to pay tax in the UK too). Actually, I'd rather like Amazon to sort out its tax bill soonish as I've always fancied buying a second kindle devoted only books written by women since my other kindle is full of classics and children's books written by men; a bit of sex segregation could be fun. 

Anyway, this is a fond farewell to the Orange Prize for fiction which has been responsible for my awareness of some wonderful books which quickly hit my favourite list (and this by no means an exhaustive list):

• Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela
• Room by Emma Donoghue 
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 
• The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna 
• Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson
• The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
• The White Women on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
• Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Small Island by Andrea Levy
• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• Fugitive Pieces by Anne Micheals.
• Property by Valerie Martin

This is the long-list from the 2012 Orange Prize. This year's winner was Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles:

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg (Quercus) - Swedish; 1st Novel
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell (Serpent's Tail) - Irish; 3rd Novel
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen (The Clerkenwell Press) - American; 4th Novel
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Serpent's Tail) - Canadian; 2nd Novel
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) - Irish; 5th Nove
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki (Headline Review) - British; 5th Novel
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (Quercus) - American; 4th Novel
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding (Bloomsbury) - British; 3rd Novel
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (Faber & Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - British; 2nd Novel
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy (Jonathan Cape) - British; 6th Novel
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Harvill Secker) - American; 1st Novel
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) - American; 1st Novel
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (Atlantic Books) - American; 7th Novel
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury) - American; 6th Novel
• There but for the by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) - British; 5th Novel
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard (Alma Books) - British; 2nd Novel
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard (Chatto & Windus) - British; 1st Novel
• The Submission by Amy Waldman (William Heinemann) - American; 1st Novel