As part of the Orange Prize for Fiction’s 15th anniversary, the 2010 Youth Panel has selected Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces as their favourite novel from all the previous winners.
Recruited via Spinebreakers.co.uk, the site for book loving teenagers, the Youth Panel is part of the Orange Prize’s strategy to engage with younger readers and introduce them to the great backlist of past winners from the last 15 years. The award will be presented by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall as part of the 15th anniversary celebrations. The Duchess recently invited the panel to Clarence House where they held the final judging meeting.
Anne Michaels commented: "It means more than I can say that Fugitive Pieces has been chosen by the Orange Prize Youth Panel. How heartened I am that this book has been received, with alertness and openness, by readers courageous enough to take to their hearts both the complex questions and the hope contained in its pages.
“Fugitive Pieces is a discussion of history, a serious enquiry into events and their consequences; what love makes us capable of, and incapable of. And it is a discussion of the deepest responsibilities of memory. That these questions have been embraced by the minds and hearts of young readers - the youth that is taking its place in the world - is utterly hopeful. I could not wish for a more meaningful honour."
Kate Mosse, Co-Founder & Honorary Director of the Orange Prize for Fiction, was the facilitator for the judging meetings. “It was a great pleasure to eavesdrop on the fabulous discussions held to get down from the shortlist of six previous winners to the overall winner. The debate was lively, focused, passionate – everything that we had hoped for – and wonderful that their final choice should be one of our earliest winners, proving – if proof we needed – that literature of the highest quality speaks beyond its time and context.”
The 2010 Orange Prize Youth Panel’s shortlist:
* A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore (1996 winner)
* Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (1997 winner)
* When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant (2000 winner)
* Small Island by Andrea Levy (2004 winner)
* On Beauty by Zadie Smith (2006 winner)
* Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2007 winner)
The Orange Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote international fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible and is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman. Any woman writing in English – whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter – is eligible. Both the prize money and the ‘Bessie’, presented to each year’s winner, are anonymously endowed.
The youth panel members are Hazel Compton (18), Kate Edwards (17), Fergus Ewbank (18), Pooja Gohil (17), Conrad Landin (17), Kirsty Woodford (17). The Youth Panel was supported by Research In Motion® who provided the judges with smartphones to help discussions via text, email and BlackBerry® Messenger.
Previous winners are Marilynne Robinson for Home (2009), Rose Tremain for The Road Home (2008), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006), Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005), Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004), Valerie Martin for Property (2003), Ann Patchett for Bel Canto (2002), Kate Grenville for The Idea of Perfection (2001), Linda Grant for When I Lived in Modern Times (2000), Suzanne Berne for A Crime in the Neighbourhood (1999), Carol Shields for Larry’s Party (1998), Anne Michaels for Fugitive Pieces (1997), and Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter (1996).
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