The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller Wins the Orange Prize for Fiction

Posted on May 30, 2012

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) has won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. Novelist Joanna Trollope was the chair of the judging committee. Trollope presented the author with the 30,000 pound prize and the Bessie, a limited edition bronze figurine, at the awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London. The ceremony was hosted by Orange Prize for Fiction Co-Founder and Honorary Director, Kate Mosse.

This is the seventeenth year the prize has been awarded. The prize celebrates "excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world." Ms. Trollope said, "This is a more than worthy winner - original, passionate, inventive and uplifting. Homer would be proud of her."

This year's judges were: Joanna Trollope, (Chair), Writer; Lisa Appignanesi, Writer, Novelist and Broadcaster; Victoria Derbyshire, Journalist and Broadcaster; Natalie Haynes, Writer and Broadcaster; and Natasha Kaplinsky, Broadcaster.

The Song of Achilles is published by Ecoo, a HarperCollins imprint, in the U.S.

Photo: HarperCollins