Octogenarian author Cynthia Ozick is one of five American Jewish writers on this year's Orange Prize longlist, announced this week. Ozick is included for her seventh novel, Foreign Bodies.

The other four contending for the £30,000 British prize for women novelists writing in English are Jaimy Gordon (whose Lord of Misrule has already won the National Book Award in the US); Leah Hager Cohen, for The Grief of Others; Erin Morgenstern for The Night Circus and Amy Waldman, for her 9/11-themed debut, The Submission.

This year's judges for the Orange, the premier award for female fiction writers, chaired by author Joanna Trollope, include writer Lisa Appignanesi and broadcaster Natasha Kaplinsky.

The winner will be announced on May 30 in a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall.