Madeline Miller Wins Orange Prize

American author Madeline Miller has won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction with her debut novel The Song of Achilles.

Now in its seventeenth year, the Orange Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing.

The awards ceremony was hosted by Orange Prize Co-Founder and Honorary Director, Kate Mosse, and the £30,000 prize was presented by the 2012 Chair of Judges, Joanna Trollope.

“This is a more than worthy winner — original, passionate, inventive and uplifting. Homer would be proud of her,” said Trollope.

The Orange Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction written by women throughout the world. The Orange Prize is awarded to the best novel of the year written in English by a woman.

The panel of judges included Joanna Trollope, Lisa Appignanesi, Victoria Derbyshire, Natalie Haynes and Natasha Kaplinsky.

Stuart Jackson, Communications Director at Orange, said: “This year’s shortlist was wonderfully varied and international but even from such an exceptional shortlist, there can only be one winner — many congratulations to Madeline Miller.”

Madeline Miller was born in Boston, and has been working on The Song of Achilles, her first novel, for the last ten years.