Hearty congratulations to foremost poet and Cassava Republic author, Lola Shoneyin! Her debut novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is on the 2011 Orange Prize longlist. Lola joins nineteen other female authors whose works have been nominated for this year’s prize.

The Orange Prize for Fiction, UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, was created in 1996 to celebrate excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing throughout the world. The judging panel for this year is chaired by Broadcaster, Historian and Author, Bettany Hughes. Other judges include founder-director of Bloomsbury Publishing and Full Circle Editions, Liz Calder and novelist, Tracy Chevalier.

The prize is open to any work of fiction written by a woman in English, irrespective of her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter.

Previous winners include Farafina author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007).

We are excited Lola has been nominated and we hope she wins!