Karen Connelly wins the 2007 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers

London, 19,15pm, 6 June 2007 — Canadian debut author Karen Connelly has won the 2007 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers with her novel The Lizard Cage (Harvill Secker).

Chair of Judges, Jackie Kay, presented the £10,000 bursary, provided by Arts Council England, to the author at the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London.

Jackie Kay, Chair of Judges said: ”Extraordinary, lyrical, visionary and compelling, universal in its depiction of the way the human spirit can survive the greatest brutality, this is a book that will open the eyes of every reader and raise the spirits.”

Launched in 2005 as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, the emphasis of the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers is on emerging talent and the evidence of future potential.

All first works of fiction - including novels, short story collections and novellas, written in English by a woman of any age or nationality and published as a book in the UK - are eligible. First time authors can be entered for both the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers in any one year.

The judges for the 2007 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers are:

Jackie Kay, (chair) Poet and Novelist

Katie Owen, Deputy Literary Editor of The Sunday Telegraph

Naomi Alderman, Novelist and winner of the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers 2006

The winner of the inaugural Orange Broadband Award for New Writers in 2005 was Diana Evans for her novel 26a. Since her win, Diana has gone on to achieve notable success in a number of other literary awards. * Naomi Alderman took the award the following year for her novel Disobedience and has since gone on to win The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2007.

Pippa Dunn, Brand Marketing Director for Orange UK said: “Supporting emerging talent amongst a fresh generation of exciting new writers is what the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers is all about. Congratulations to Karen. We wish her every success in her future career.”

Arts Council England has provided an arts award of £30,000 for three years (£10,000 per year) for bursaries for the winners of the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. By offering a bursary to a fiction writer for her first publication, the Arts Council aims to play a role in supporting the professional development of an author at a crucial stage in her career.

Sarah Weir, Executive Director of Arts Council England, London, said: “Arts Council England would like to congratulate Karen Connelly on winning this year's Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. We are very pleased to be supporting such an exciting writer at this important point in her career. We welcome this partnership with Orange as part of our commitment to new writing, diversity and internationalism. It's wonderful that this prestigious award can bring excellent writing to readers across the country, and the world.”

Karen Connelly is the author of seven books of poetry and non-fiction. Her first book of prose, Touch the Dragon: A Thai Journal, won the Governor General's Literary Award for Non Fiction in 1993 and was a New York Times Notable Travel Book of the Year. Raised in Calgary, Connelly has lived for extended periods in different parts of Asia and Europe, and now divides her time between rural Greece, travels in Asia and her home in Toronto.

THE LIZARD CAGE

Teza once electrified the people of Burma with his protest songs against the dictatorship. Arrested by the Burmese secret police in the days of mass protest, he is seven years into a twenty-year sentence in solitary confinement, cut off from his family and contact with other prisoners.

Despite his isolation, Teza has a profound influence on the world of the cage. He inspires the conscience-ridden senior jailer to radical change. His very existence challenges the brutal authority of Handsome, the junior jailer. Even though his server, the criminal Sein Yun, sees compromising the singer as a ticket out of jail, Teza befriends him, risking falling into the trap of forbidden conversation, food and the most dangerous contraband of all, paper and pen.

Lastly there's Little Brother, an orphan child growing up inside the walls. Teza and the boy are prisoners of different orders, but their extraordinary friendship frees both of them in utterly surprising ways.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Wins 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction

The 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction was won by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for her novel Half of a Yellow Sun (Fourth Estate).

The 2007 award ceremony took place in The Ballroom of the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall prior to the venue officially re-opening. Guests toasted the winner announcement at a champagne drinks reception courtesy of Taittinger.