Novels by fellow UEA alumni Diana Evans and Sam Byers have been longlisted for the inaugural Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Diana is nominated for Ordinary People (Chatto & Windus) and Sam for Perfidious Albion (Faber & Faber). The prize rewards outstanding fiction published in the UK that illuminates major social and political themes, and the winner will be announced in June. Diana (pictured) graduated from the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) in 2003 and published her debut novel 26a in 2005, winning the Orange Award for New Writers and the British Book Awards deciBel Writer of the Year prize. Her second novel The Wonder was published in 2009. Ordinary People is also shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Sam also graduated from the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) in 2003 and completed his PhD in Creative & Critical Writing in 2014. His first novel Idiopathy was published in 2013 and won a Betty Trask Award. It was also shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Award.
