April PrizeCAT- Women's Writing

This month’s prize is dedicated to women’s writing. Admittedly the prize I was most familiar with is the Women’s Prize for Fiction, however there are many other awards out there. The list below is not comprehensive, so feel free to suggest any that are not listed here.

Women’s Prize for Fiction- this prize was also known as the Orange Prize and the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction in previous years.

Davitt Award - is awarded to crime fiction by Australian women writers.

Reading Women Award- recognizes outstanding books written by or about women.

Stella Prize- an Australian annual literary award for writing by Australian women in all genres.

Willa Literary Award- named in honor of Willa Cather, women’s or girl’s stories featured in the West

Let us know what you plan to read this month and post to the wiki if so inclined.

I will be reading The Road Home, which won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2008.

The Wiki

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout has been sitting on my tbr shelves for years. It won the Orange Prize, so now is the time!

I don't have any winners sitting on my TBR shelves but I do have The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett, which was shortlisted for the Women's Prize For Fiction in 1998

Here’s a couple more prizes I found while trying to pick my April book. They’re fairly recent and specialized, so not a ton of titles:

Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
Comedy Women In Print

I’m probably going to read either How to Be Both by Ali Smith, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2015, or The Ruin by ‪Dervla McTiernan‬, which won the Davitt Award in 2019.

I am reading The Strays by Emily Bitto, winner of the 2015 Stella. It has been on my shelf for a long time!

I'm not familiar with most literary prizes. Is being on the short-list or long-list a prize in itself?

>7 Tess_W: I don't see why you can't count books on the long and short-lists.

I'm planning to read Homeby Marilynne Robinson, a Women's Prize for Fiction winner (although I think it was still the Orange Prize then).

The only thing I have on my shelves is Circe by Madeline Miller which was shortlisted for the Women's Prize in 2019. Would this count since it is not a winner?

I think so. I figure if the author wrote a book good enough to make the shortlist, it's already a winner.

>10 lowelibrary: That is a great book!

Then I will be reading Circe for this challenge.

I think I will read Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, which was on the Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist in 1997.

>14 LisaMorr: Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors, and Alias Grace is one of my favorite of her books. I hope you enjoy it!

>15 Charon07: I love her too! I've been meaning to get to this one for quite some time, glad to have this prompt!

I’m reading Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro, winner of several honors.

I changed my choice and read Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. It won the 2023 Eisner Award for best graphic memoir. I had never read a graphic memoir before. This one was well worth reading.

Comedy Women in Print Prize. Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen appeals to me.

The Burgess Boys was my first choice but the print is really small, and I don't really want to read "a portrait of an American community in turmoil that's as ambitious as Philip Roth's American Pastoral but more intimate in tone". Best to be realistic!

I've put a link to The Wiki in >2 pamelad:.

I thought I'd picked out a book for this, then discovered we are reading it later in the year for my f2f book club, so I don't want to read it this early. Will try to find something else.

I listened to the audiobook of The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan, beautifully read by Aoife McMahon. It won the Davitt Award in 2019. I’m interested in reading more of the Cormac Reilly series.

The May thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/360096

I read Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress, which won Locus and Nebula awards in 2014-15.

I read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
First read many years ago, then again not too long ago, this time I listened to the audio version with a superb reading by Dan Stevens. The plot is not without minor faults, but can be forgiven because it was so original, so clever. One of the things I had forgotten was the atmosphere of malevolence on Soldier Island where no one was trusted.

Listed on the Guardian 1000, 1000 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and many other lists, including 100 Must-Read Classics by Women.

I've finished Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen, which won the Comedy Women in Print award.

I read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, which won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2021. It took me a bit to get into but wound up being very good.

>27 antqueen: I just read Piranesi for this CAT also. Felt like I was the last person to have gotten around to this one. I really enjoyed it right from the start.

I finished Home by Marilynne Robinson last night and it will be a contender for my best book of the year.

I have finished Les adieux à la Reine which won the Prix Femina in 2002. Despite the name, it is not a prize awarded exclusively to women. I very much enjoyed this book which looks at the first days of the French Revolution as experienced by the Queen's reader who has never seen Paris and lives a strangely isolated life at Versailles.

I finally finished Alias Grace over the weekend - it was very good. Atwood does not disappoint!