Wordfest Congratulates Emily St. John Mandel and Heather O’Neill

Wordfest 2014 Alumni on Longlist for prestigious UK Prize

The Festival is delighted to learn that Emily St. John Mandel and Heather O’Neill from the Wordfest 2014 lineup are among the 20 international writers longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

At Wordfest 2014, Emily St. John Mandel presented Station Eleven, longlisted for the award, in an event titled Future Imperfect where she joined novelist Adam Sternbergh and host Andrew Guilbert on stage.

In Station Eleven, one snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, civilization and the world as we know it begins to collapse.

Heather O'Neill appeared in the Festival's popular Saturday morning event, Gals and Good Times, where she presented The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, the story of gorgeous twins who are hopelessly promiscuous and wildly funny. But their self-destructive shenanigans catch up with them when one agrees to be beauty queen in the local St. Jean Baptiste Day parade.

The shortlist for the £30,000 prize will be announced April 13, and the winner June 3, 2015. Read more in this article from the Quill & Quire.