Goodwin and Speirs to chair Orange
10.12.09 Katie Allen in The Bookseller

TV producer and writer Daisy Goodwin is to chair the 15th Orange Prize for Fiction judging panel. Radio 4 editor Di Speirs will chair the Orange Award for New Writers.

Goodwin will be joined by Baroness Neuberger, DBE, rabbi, author and broadcaster; novelist and critic Michele Roberts; journalist and broadcastr Miranda Sawyer; and Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue. The shortlist for the £30,000 prize will be announced on 20th April.

Goodwin said: "I'm very honoured to be chairing a female judging panel . . . As I am addicted to reading I am really looking forward to the next six months and finding some great new books that will appeal to everybody."

Speirs will judge the £10,000 New Writers prize alongside Observer journalist Rachel Cooke and novelist Bernadine Evaristo. The shortlist will be revealed on 14th April 2010.

Speirs said: "Discovering, supporting and celebrating debut work by women has always been important to me, so I am really delighted to be chairing this year's Orange Award for New Writers, a prize which offers an unrivalled opportunity to reward and salute the talented new writers that we'll be reading in years to come."

Both prizes will be awarded on 9th June 2010