Sunday March 6, 2005
Germaine Greer sneered and Auberon Waugh called it the Lemon Prize. On its 10th anniversary, the controversy continues over whether the women-only Orange Prize has any place in the literary world
The Orange prize for fiction is 10 years old and as controversial as ever. Some authors decline to be entered for it; some critics deride it as a prize for people who can't hack it in the rough, tough world of competitions that can also be entered by men.
Even though the Orange Prize has become (with the Man Booker and the Whitbread) one of the big three awards of the literary calendar, and even though it has brought to readers' attention remarkable books that sold poorly, its status as a prize for women's fiction remains suspect. Even some who win and judge it are troubled by its premise.
When it was founded, Auberon Waugh nicknamed it the Lemon Prize. Germaine Greer complained that someone would soon found a prize for writers with red hair. The original sponsors, Mitsubishi pens, were frightened off by a column by Simon Jenkins dismissing it as sexist. On 14 March, the latest panel of Orange judges will announce its 10th long list, which will be widely reported and picked up by reading groups. Jenkins, though, remains unrepentant.
'The Orange Prize,' he says, 'demonstrates the wonderful longevity of discrimination, provided it's PC. I'm amazed, frankly, that it's lasted so long. It validates all those men in the Garrick who refuse to admit women.' The columnist and critic John Walsh also remains ambivalent: 'I object to any prize from which one can infer that women writers are not as proficient or need an unfair crack of the whip.'
The Observer for the rest of this article
