Orange Prize Youth Panel reveal their shortlist

Orange today announces the shortlist selected by the youth panel recruited to shadow the judging process of the official Orange Prize for Fiction 2009. The panel forms part of a campaign to engage younger readers with the Orange Prize.

The youth panel members are Lily Dessau (16), Joe Kerridge (16), Clarissa Pabi (18), Rossana Duarte (18), Francis Gene-Rowe (18) and Max Elsworth (19).

Recruited via teenage website, Spinebreakers.co.uk, the shadow panel read the 20 books longlisted for the 2009 Orange Prize and then met to choose their shortlist of six. The meeting was facilitated by Kate Mosse, author and Honorary Director of the Orange Prize.

The panel have also been sharing their experiences of judging a book prize publicly on Spinebreakers since they began reading in March.

“The quality of the youth panel challenges the often negative news stories put out in the media about teenagers and reading,” commented Kate Mosse. “There was outstanding analysis, energy for the task in hand, commitment and an openness and determination to judge each book on its own merits - it was a privilege to eavesdrop on their deliberations.”

She continues, “If ever proof was needed that what matters is a passion for reading, not age or previous experience in this area, then this panel is it and we are very grateful to them all for giving up their time at such a busy point in the academic year.”

Strikingly, although many of the same novels which appear on the Orange Prize shortlist were popular with the teenage panel, no cross over appears between the lists selected by the youth panel and the official Orange Prize judging panel.

The shortlist chosen by the youth panel is:

• Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold, Tindal Street Press
• Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo, Hamish Hamilton
• The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser, Chatto & Windus
• A Mercy by Toni Morrison, Chatto & Windus
• The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight by Gina Oscher, Portobello Books
• The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews, Faber and Faber

The panel in their own words:

Max Elsworth, 19, on Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold: “Girl in a Blue Dress is fervidly written, enthralling and charming. The characters are endearingly witty, amiable and vivid; Arnold conveys this Victorian scenario perfectly.”

Clarissa Pabi, 18, on Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo: "Evaristo addresses the holocaust of slavery in an extremely unique and exciting way. Blonde Roots is not an emulation of Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses, it’s more like Phillip Pullman meets Roots. His Dark Materials meets Her Light Materials. This book has the X-Factor!"

Lily Dessau, 16, on The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser: “The Lost Dog is a poetically written and moving depiction of relationships between mothers and sons, friends and families, both painfully and beautifully true.”

Rossana Duarte, 18, on A Mercy by Toni Morrison: “A Mercy by Toni Morrison is an unfolding tapestry of five aptly ventriloquised voices, each threaded together unknowingly and embroidered onto a bedding of rich slave trade history and culture.”

Francis Gene-Rowe, 18, on The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight by Gina Oscher: “Tears and laughter are handled with equal adeptness and a certain crazy slavishness permeates the prose of this story that explores some profound themes. A thoroughly charming book that makes for a highly exciting and interesting read.”

Joe Kerridge, 16, on The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews: “The Flying Troutmans is a road trip of hope, guts and spirit. Its portrayal of the family is touchingly faithful and its intricacies are vivid and joyful. The Flying Troutmans is a wonderful book."

The panel will gather one more time later this month to decide their overall winner which will be revealed prior to the Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 awards ceremony in June.

The official Orange Prize judging panel, who announced their shortlist last month, includes broadcaster Fi Glover (Chair), writer and novelist Bidisha, journalist and academic Sarah Churchwell, journalist Kira Cochrane and entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox.

The Orange Prize for Fiction is the UK’s only annual book award for international fiction written by a woman. Now in its fourteenth year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world and is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman.

The 2009 winner will be presented with a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze statue known as ‘the Bessie’ at an awards ceremony in The Ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, on 3 June 2009.

Previous winners include 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) and Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004).

For more information, go to www.orangeprize.co.uk.

ENDS

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For more information please contact: Amanda Johnson at M&C Saatchi on 0207 543 4689 or amanda.johnson@mcsaatchi.com

Notes to Editors

Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 dates for the diary:

• Orange Award for New Writers and Anne Michaels event at Southbank Centre: 1 June • Orange Prize Shortlist Readings at Southbank Centre: 2 June • Orange Prize for Fiction awards ceremony in The Ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre: 3 June

The official Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 shortlist is:

Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman, Picador
The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey, Jonathan Cape
The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt, HarvillSecker
Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden, Faber and Faber
Home by Marilynne Robinson, Virago
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie, Bloomsbury
About the Youth Panel The youth panel were recruited via the Spinebreakers website, the UK's only online book community for teenagers run by teenagers.

Lily Dessau, 16 Lily lives in South London and is studying Art, English, History and Maths at school. She loves reading and is also a fan of live music. Lily would like to study English Literature at University and her ambition is to become a writer or journalist. Her favourite authors include Philip Pullman, George Orwell and Malorie Blackman and she also enjoys reading murder/mystery, comedy and adventure stories.

Joe Kerridge, 16 Joe goes to school in South East London. He has loved reading since a child and cites literature and sport, particularly cricket, as his two main passions. His top five authors at the moment include Ian McEwan, Jack Kerouac, Harold Pinter, Franz Kafka and Stephen Fry.

Rossana Duarte, 18 Rossana is taking Physics, Chemistry and Biology A-levels and she hopes to go to university to study Chemistry. Her hobbies include go-karting, reading and writing poetry and astronomy and her dream is to become an astronaut. Rossana’s favourite authors include Jane Austen, Stephen Fry, Isabel Allende and F.Scott Fitzgerald.

Clarissa Pabi, 18 Clarissa is currently studying for A-levels in English Literature, Philosophy and Maths and also enjoys theatre, physics and politics. She writes for the Spinebreakers website and last year became the 2008 Roundhouse Theatre Poetry Champion. She is also part of the Barbican Young Poets. Her ambition is to become a critic and a writer and her favourite authors include Will Self, J.K Rowling and Mary Shelley.

Francis Rowe-Gene, 18 Francis is a gap year student and next year he will be going to UCL to read English. In the meantime he works as a part-time teacher and tutor. His main interests are theatre, music, film and writing and he hopes one day to work in one or more of those fields. In the past he has worked on several theatre projects both in school and out, and when he is not teaching, he can normally be found with his nose in a book.

Max Elsworth, 19 Max is currently finishing English and History A-levels at college and his ambition is to study English at Oxford. His main hobbies include reading, writing, playing the cello and guitar. An aspiring story writer, poet, song writer and journalist, Max’s top five authors are Tolkien, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, R.L Stine and J.K. Rowling. About Spinebreakers Spinebreakers.co.uk is a teen online book community run by teenagers themselves.

Launched in 2007, editorial control of the site is in the hands of a core editorial team of nine teenagers aged between 13 and 18 years, supported by a large network of contributing teen editors from across the UK.

The teen team produce a wide variety of multi-media content for the website including video and audio reviews, alternative book jackets and endings, soundtracks, author interviews, podcasts, blogs, short stories and much more.

About Orange

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