Kiran Desai's book in list of Orange Prize

London, Mar 20 (UNI) Man Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss" is in the list of this year's women-only Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.

The list also includes another winner of one of Britain's leading literary award, Stef Penney whose "The Tenderness of Wolves" won the Costa. Both authors will compete for the Prize.

Muriel Gray, the writer, broadcaster and chairperson of the Orange judges, defended the award. She said, "Women are not promoted as strongly as men. Women are promoted if they look pretty." Women, she added, were encouraged to write depressing dramas about grief and families.

Her comments revived arguments from 1996 when the 30,000 pound Orange prize was set up. Anita Brookner, a Booker winner, was among those who said that if women wanted equality, they should not seek separate treatment. "If a book is good, it will get published," she added. She said yesterday that her views were unchanged.

Ms Gray said that the award played an important role in recognising first-time authors as well as "heavyweights". Any woman writing in English is eligible. There are eight debut novels on the longlist -- 'Poppy Shakespeare' by Clare Allen, 'The Dissident' by Nell Freudenberger, 'When to Walk' by Rebecca Gowers, 'The Observations' by Jane Harris, 'Alligator' by Lisa Moore, 'What was Lost' by Catherine O'Flynn, 'The Tenderness' of Wolvesby Penney, and 'Careless' by Deborah Robertson.

A shortlist will be announced on April 17 and the winner on June 6.

The contenders are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for 'Half of a Yellow Sun', Clare Allen for 'Poppy Shakespeare', Rachel Cusk for 'Arlington Park', Kiran Desai for 'The Inheritance of Loss', Patricia Ferguson for 'Peripheral Vision', Margaret Forster for 'Over', Nell Freudenberger for 'The Dissident', Rebecca Gowers for 'When to Walk', Xiaolu Guo for 'A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers', Jane Harris for 'The Observations', M J Hyland for 'Carry Me Down'.

Lori Lansens for 'The Girls', 'Lisa Moore for 'Alligator', Catherine O'Flynn for 'What was Lost', Stef Penney for 'The Tenderness of Wolves', Deborah Robertson for 'Careless', Rachel Seiffert for 'Afterwards', Jane Smiley for 'Ten Days in the Hills', Anne Tyler for 'Digging to America', Melanie Wallace for 'The Housekeeper'.

UNI