Shortlist Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024
The Women's Prize for Fiction is the world's largest award dedicated to female creativity: "six brilliant, thought-provoking and spellbinding novels that capture an enormous breadth of the human experience" - according to the jury - have been just selected for the shortlist.
Kate Grenville is the first Australian author to be shortlisted twice for this award: she won the Women's Prize for Fiction (then called The Orange Prize) in 2001 for her novel "The Idea of Perfection" and she is now on the shortlist.
In Restless Dolly Grenville (Text Publishing, 2023), the author commemorates her grandmother's life, a strong female character. Born in the late 19th century and raised in a farming family in rural New South Wales, Dolly spends her life stubbornly forcing her way through the doors of society, which have always been barred to women. Her husband and her two children don't stop her from seeking love and independence: Restless Dolly Maunder is the subversive and triumphant story of a pioneering woman making her way through a world of limitations and obstacles - already acclaimed by the press.
Here are the words of the author after the announcement of the shortlist:
I'm thrilled beyond words to be shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. What an honour to be standing beside so many powerful books bringing women's experiences to readers. Women's books have so often been overlooked in the big noisy world of literary prizes - the Women's Prize has been a really important part of changing that [...]. I can only think how astonished and delighted my grandmother would be, to have her story brought to the world in this way.
And Text Publishing's enthusiastic comment:
What makes Restless Dolly Maunder so compelling and moving to read is that it fully imagines the life of Kate Grenville's grandmother without inventing or embellishing the details of her life. Fiction is about understanding what it means to see the world through someone else's eyes, and that's why Restless Dolly Maunder is a great novel. Everyone at Text congratulates Kate on her marvellous achievement.
The winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024 will be awarded at the Women's Prize Trust Summer Party in London on 13th June and will receive a sum of £30,000.
