New research published by the Orange Prize for Fiction reveals that women still have to work twice as hard as men to get their books read by the opposite sex. Additionally men will often pass over books written by men if the choice of cover design or title indicates that it is a ‘female read’ regardless of subject matter. The research [in which twenty books were shown to 200 respondents – male and female] was commissioned to address the following questions: How important is the gender of the author in our choice of books? To what extent are particular authors’ books perceived as being written mainly for women, for men or for both and on what basis is this judgement

The Orange Award for New Writers will be awarded for the first time in 2005 to coincide with the Orange Prize for Fiction’s 10th birthday celebrations. The winner will receive £10,000 to help her pursue her work with greater freedom. Winner announced (7 June 2005) Shortlist announced (25 April 2005) The judges will be looking for emerging talent and the evidence of future potential and seeking to identify writers of excellence, originality and accessibility. All first works of fiction – including novels, short story collections and novellas – written by women of any age or nationality and published in book form in the UK between 1st April 2004 and 31st March 2005 will be eligible. Novels can be entered for both the Orange

It was sparked by the death of someone close to me. I had a weirdly comic and mystifying experience of grief and bereavement that had a lot to do with being a twin. The idea of being cut in half but also doubled by the experience stayed with me for a long time before I began writing the book, which eventually became a novel, essentially, about the relationship between twins. Other themes in the book, such as marriage and dual heritage, and the contrasts of comedy and tragedy, realism and the supernatural, became metaphors for twinness, for ‘two-ness’. When did you first realise you wanted to write fiction? I used to read a lot when I was a teenager and