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Women writers dominate the shortlist for the 2013 Guardian First Book Award, in association with Waterstones.
Picador has two books on the shortlist: Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, about a woman condemned to death in 1820s Iceland, and Lottie Moggach’s Kiss Me First, the tale of a woman drawn into a dangerous online world.
Chatto also has two: Sex and the Citadel by Shereen El Feki, a study of changing sexual attitudes and behaviour in the Arab world, and NoViolet Bulawayo’s Man Booker-shortlisted tale about a Zimbabwean girl's coming-of-age, We Need New Names.
Donal Ryan is the only man on the shortlist with novel The Spinning Heart (Doubleday Ireland), which has already achieved success at the 2012 Irish Book Awards, winning Book of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. The novel, which portrays different narrators dealing with Ireland’s economic crisis in a rural town, was also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Waterstones reading groups assisted the judges in drawing up the shortlist.
Lisa Allardice, editor of Guardian Review and chair of the judging panel, praised the list of “accomplished debuts”. Making up the rest of the panel are Stuart Broom, Susie Orbach, Rachel Cusk, Philip Hensher and Paul Mason.
The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on 28th November and will receive a £10,000 prize.
The annual award recognising the finest new writing talent across all genres is now in its 15th year. Previous winners include Zadie Smith and Alex Ross.