Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2015 - shortlist announced

The shortlist for the 2015 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction was announced on April 13th. The prize, until 2012 known as the Orange Prize for Fiction, sets out to reward excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women from throughout the world.

This year the shortlist includes four British writers, one British/Pakistani writer and one American. All of the authors on this year’s shortlist with the exception of Laline Paull - a debut novelist - have previously been shortlisted for the award.

The shortlisted titles are:
Outline by Rachel Cusk
The Bees by Laline Paull
A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie
How to be Both by Ali Smith
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
“They are all fantastic,” said chair of judges Shami Chakrabarti. “They are very different in various ways – subject matter, genre, style. Some are sparse, some poetic. What they have in common is that you can’t put them down.” The award was won in 2014 by Eimear McBride for A Girl is a Half-formed Thing. Other winners include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun, Zadie Smith for On Beauty and by Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin. The winner of the 2015 award will be announced on the 3rd of June.