Donoghue on Orange Prize shortlist

Irish author Emma Donoghue has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Room.

The novel - Donoghue's ninth - is a dark tale about a boy who lives with his mother in a locked room. The book, which recently won the Hughes Hughes Novel of the Year Award and was also shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, was inspired by the Josef Fritzl case.

Born in Dublin in 1969, Donoghue has written nine novels including Slammerkin and Stirfry.

The writer, who now lives in Canada, has received widespread praise for Room, which Irish Times literary correspondent Eileen Battersby described as "a powerful exploration of the bond between a mother and child".

Now in its 16th year, the Orange Prize for Fiction is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman in the English language.

Previous winners of the award include Barbara Kingsolver, Marilynne Robinson, Rose Tremain, Andrea Levy, Lionel Shriver and Zadie Smith.

Among the other novelists shortlisted for the 2011 prize are Nicole Krauss for Great House, Kathleen Winter for Annabel and Emma Henderson for Grace Williams Says it Loud.

The judges for the 2011 Orange Prize include journalist Susanna Reid, publisher Liz Calder, novelist Tracy Chevalier and actor Helen Lederer. The broadcaster, historian and author Bettany Hughes is chair of the panel.

Ms Hughes described this year's shortlist as one "which should give hours of reading pleasure to the wider world.”

"The verve and scope of storylines pays compliment to the female imagination. There are no subjects these authors don't dare to tackle," she said.

"Even though the stories in our final choices range from kidnapping to colonialism, from the persistence of love to Balkan folk-memory, from hermaphroditism to abuse in care, the books are written with such a skilful lightness of touch, humour, sympathy and passion, they all make for an exhilarating and uplifting read," Ms Hughes added.

The winner of the £30,000 award will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the Royal Festival Hall in London on June 8th.

Orange Prize 2011 shortlist

Emma Donoghue - Room
Aminatta Forna - The Memory of Love
Emma Henderson - Grace Williams Says it Loud
Nicole Krauss - Great House
Téa Obreht - The Tiger's Wife
Kathleen Winter - Annabel