As reported here, The Life of a Banana by PP Wong has been longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for
Fiction (formerly the Orange
Prize). It is one of four titles with Asian interest to have caught the
judges' eyes, the others are I
Am China, by Xiaolu Guo, A God in Every Stone, by Kamila Shamsie,
and The Bees, by Laline Paull, who was born in the UK of first
generation Indian Immigrants
PP had this to say
about the Prize's support for Asia's women writers: "I'm
absolutely thrilled that four Asian authors have been longlisted. In the last
year, I have seen some positive steps in the Western publishing industry
towards supporting fresh, fearless narratives by female Asian writers. For
example, Celeste Ng was chosen as Amazon's book of the year. While Yiyun Li and
Madeleine Thien were nominated for the UK Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.
There is still more work to be done in encouraging more diverse voices, but I
am hopeful that changes are already starting to happen."
The
Prize will be awarded in London, on June 3. Good luck, PP!
