LONDON -- Celebrated Canadian authors Margaret Atwood, Heather O'Neill and Madeleine Thien are on the long list for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.
The trio is among 16 authors in contention for the 30,000 pound (C$49,000) literary prize which celebrates excellence in full-length, English-language works written by women.
Three-time prize finalist Atwood was recognized for her novel "Hag-Seed" (Knopf Canada), a modern retelling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest."
Montreal-based O'Neill -- who was shortlisted for the award in 2008 and made the long list in 2015 -- was honoured for her latest novel "The Lonely Hearts Hotel" (HarperCollins), a sweeping, decades-spanning saga of love and loss between two orphans.
Thien's "Do Not Say We Have Nothing" (Knopf Canada), which is set in China before, during and after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, was among the most heralded Canadian titles of 2016.
The Montreal-based Thien was awarded last year's Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction, and landed on the short list for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.
This year's long list also includes writers from the U.K., U.S., Ireland, Nigeria and South Africa, and features previous winners Eimear McBride, Rose Tremain and Linda Grant.
Other contenders include Ayobami Adebayo, Naomi Alderman, Emma Flint, Mary Gaitskill, Fiona Melrose, C.E. Morgan, Yewande Omotoso, Sarah Perry, Annie Proulx and Gwendoline Riley.
Past Canadian winners include Anne Michaels for "Fugitive Pieces," and the late Carol Shields for "Larry's Party."
The short list will be announced on April 3, and the winner will be announced on June 7.
