John Morstad/The Globe and Mail
Canadian writer Kathleen Winter entered the big leagues yesterday with the announcement that her debut novel, Annabel, had been named to the long list of 20 books competing for the 2011 Orange Prize for fiction by women writers.
Also named to the long list was Irish-Canadian Emma Donoghue for Room, a worldwide bestseller that beat Annabel for this year's Rogers Writers' Trust award in Canada and was nominated for the Booker Prize.
Also on the short list are Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, recent winner of the 2010 fiction prize from the National Book Critics Circle in the United States, and new literary darling Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife.
The full list of nominees can be found here.
The short list for the $48,000 prize will be announced April 12, with the winner to be revealed at an awards ceremony June 8.