Irish author Emma Donoghue has been longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Room.
The novel - Donoghue's ninth - is a dark tale about a boy who lives with his mother in a locked room. The book, which recently won the Hughes Hughes Novel of the Year Award and was also shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, was inspired by the Josef Fritzl case.
Born in Dublin in 1969, Donoghue has written nine novels including Slammerkin and Stirfry.
The writer, who now lives in Canada, has received widespread praise for Room, which Irish Times literary correspondent Eileen Battersby described as "a powerful exploration of the bond between a mother and child".
Now in its 16th year, the Orange Prize for Fiction is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman in the English language.
Previous winners of the award include Barbara Kingsolver, Marilynne Robinson, Rose Tremain, Andrea Levy, Lionel Shriver and Zadie Smith.
Among the other novelists longlisted for the 2011 prize are Louise Doughty for her book Whatever You Love, which was also shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Novel of the Year award.
The judges for the 2011 Orange Prize include journalist Susanna Reid, publisher Liz Calder, novelist Tracy Chevalier and actor Helen Lederer. The broadcaster, historian and author Bettany Hughest is chair of the panel.
The winner of the €30,000 award will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the Royal Festival Hall in London on June 8th.
The Orange Prize for Fiction longlist in full:
Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate)
Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)
The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury)
Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber)
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury)
The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape)
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre)
The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair)
The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber)
Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking)
The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus)
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking)
Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent's Tail)
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus)
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail)
The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press)
Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape)
