Women's Prize for Fiction Archive
TitleWomen's Prize for Fiction Archive
ReferenceKUAS74
Date
c. early 1980s- ongoing
Production date 1980-01-01 - 9999-12-31
Scope and ContentDocuments relating to the Women's Prize for Fiction, which has been awarded annually since 1996 to recognise excellence in women's writing. The Archive contains material on the Prize including background research, press releases and publicity materials. It also contains material on the initiatives created by the prize to encourage reading and discussion around Women’s literature. The Collection continues to grow as the Prize is awarded each year.
Extent8 boxes
Persons keywordWomen's Prize for Fiction Committee
SubjectBooks, Awards, Women's Prize for Fiction, Publicity
Admin. history/BiographyThe Women’s Prize for Fiction dates back to January 1992, when a group from the Publishing industry got together to discuss the formation of a new prize to celebrate Women’s fiction. This was in response to a number of other literary prizes being awarded disproportionally to male authors. The founding Women’s Prize Committee was formed and set about writing some guidelines for the Prize, and looking into possible funding sources.
After discussions with a number of potential sponsors, discussions were started with Orange in Autumn 1995, with the official launch of the Orange Prize for Fiction in January 1996. The prize was awarded for the first time later that year.
The Women's Prize for Fiction has been awarded annually since 1996, and is awarded to a novel written by a women in English. A panel of judges is selected each year to select the longlist, shortlist and ultimate winner of the Prize. The Prize Fund of £30000 is from an anonymous donor, as well as receiving this, winners also receive a statue known as ‘Bessie’. Alongside the Prize there have been a number of initiatives to encourage reading, such as the setting up of reading groups in the work place and publicity campaigns with book shops, as well as a prize for New Writers.
In 2012 it was announced that Orange would end their sponsorship of the Prize. The Women’s Prize for Fiction was run without a sponsor in 2013, from 2014 Bailey's took over sponsorship with the Prize known as the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.
Levelfonds
