London, 19.15pm, 7 April 2014: The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, today announces the 2014 shortlist. Now in its nineteenth year*, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women from throughout the world.

The judges for the 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction are:

Helen Fraser, (Chair), Chief Executive of the Girls’ Day School Trust

Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge

Denise Mina, Writer

Caitlin Moran, Times columnist, Author and Screenwriter

Sophie Raworth, BBC Broadcaster and Journalist

This year’s shortlist, announced this evening (Monday 7^th April) at an event at The Magazine Restaurant at The Serpentine Sackler, central London, includes one previous winner of the Orange Prize; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010 for Half of a Yellow Sun, and one previously shortlisted author.

“We are very excited by the books we have chosen for the shortlist,” said Helen Fraser, Chair of judges. “Each one is original and extraordinary in its own way -– each offers something different and exciting and illuminating.”

She continues, “We feel you could give any one of these books to a friend with the absolute confidence that they would be gripped and absorbed and that maybe their view of the world would be changed once they had read it.”

“Spanning nationalities, ages and genres, the shortlist represents the rich diversity in women’s writing today,” commented Syl Saller, Chief Marketing Officer, Diageo. “The exceptional talent and powerful writing exhibited by the shortlist is exactly why Baileys is so proud to partner with the Women’s Prize for Fiction.”

Set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote international fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2014 is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman.  Any woman writing in English – whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter – is eligible.

The winner will be presented with a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze statue known as ‘the Bessie’, created by artist Grizel Niven. Both are anonymously endowed.

The award ceremony will take place in The Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, on 4 June 2014.

Previous winners include A.M. Homes for May We Be Forgiven (2013), Madeline Miller for The Song of Achilles (2012),  Téa Obreht for The Tiger’s Wife (2011), Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna (2010), Marilynne Robinson for Home (2009), Rose Tremain for The Road Home (2008), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006),  Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005), Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004), Valerie Martin for Property (2003), Ann Patchett for Bel Canto (2002), Kate Grenville for The Idea of Perfection (2001), Linda Grant for When I Lived in Modern Times (2000), Suzanne Berne for A Crime in the Neighbourhood (1999), Carol Shields for Larry’s Party (1998), Anne Michaels for Fugitive Pieces (1997), and Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter (1996).