The Bookseller.com

4th July 2009

More criticism of Orange prize

18.03.08

Debate over the role of the Orange prize continues, as A S Byatt told the Times that the Orange was a sexist prize, saying that she was so critical of what it stands for that she forbids her publishers to submit her novels for consideration. "Such a prize was never needed," she told the newspaper, noting that many works of literature were by women.

John Sutherland, the academic, said that ghettoising women writers did them more harm them good. Anita Brookner, a Booker winner, has dismissed positive discrimination and is also believed to have declined having her novels entered for the Orange.

However, the all-women Orange literature prize is still needed, despite women winning prizes in fair competition with men, the organisers have said.

Harriet Hastings, project director of the Orange prize, shrugged off the criticisms, maintaining that it was international and had no need to justify its existence: "Although major prizes have been won by women, the value of the Orange is as a celebration of women’s fiction."

She dismissed the suggestion that there would be an outcry from women if anyone tried to introduce a prize for the best male novel, saying that she would actually welcome it.

Times

Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction Prize Home A S Byatt

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