Congratulations to Julie Orringer (Iowa Writers' Workshop MFA, 1996), who was named to the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction longlist, for her novel, The Invisible Bridge, published by Viking in 2010. The Invisible Bridge is Orringer's first novel, after her celebrated short story collection, How To Breathe Underwater (Knopf, 2003). As Andrew Ervin wrote in The New York Times, "the strength of The Invisible Bridge lies in Orringer’s ability to make us care so deeply about the people of her all-too-real fictional world. For the time it takes to read this fine novel, and for a long time afterward, it becomes our world too." The Invisible Bridge was also selected for The New York Times list of "100 Notable Books for 2010." Launched in 1996, the Orange Prize for Fiction "celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world." Previous Orange Prize winners include Workshop faculty member Marilynne Robinson, Barbara Kingsolver, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Zadie Smith. read more...