After Losing Its Sponsor, Literary Prize for Women Will Live On

October 9, 2012, 11:47 am

By DAVE ITZKOFF

A consortium of private donors including Cherie Blair, the wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the novelist Joanna Trollope have joined together to preserve financing for a prominent British literary prize awarded to women, The Guardian reported. The prize, known from its introduction in 1996 as the Orange Prize for Fiction, was created to celebrate “excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world,” according to its Web site, and had been awarded to authors including Lionel Shriver (for “We Need to Talk About Kevin”), Zadie Smith (“On Beauty”), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (“Half of a Yellow Sun”) and Marilynne Robinson (“Home”).

But in May it was announced that the telecommunication company Orange would no longer sponsor the award, which comes with a prize of £30,000 (about $48,000). These funds, The Guardian said, were provided by a private donor but other expenses were covered by the sponsorship. The award, which is now called the Women's Prize for Fiction, will be financed in the short term by donations from individuals and companies, though it continues to seek sponsors for 2014 and beyond. Ms. Trollope told The Guardian: “I both admire and believe in this prize. It has excellent principles, has produced some wonderful winners, and deserves both support and recognition for what it has done and will do. It's also really generous in spirit â€" and I applaud that.”