Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood has been shortlisted for the UK's richest award for fiction.

The Blind Assassin, which won the Booker in 2000, has made the final cut for The Orange Prize for Fiction.

The Orange award offers an incentive of a �30,000 prize pot for works written in English by women.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Jane Smiley has also been nominated for her latest novel Horse Heaven.

Authors making the grade this year hail from America, Canada, Australia and the UK.

The winner will be presented with the money and a limited edition bronze statue by the artist Grizel Niven at a ceremony on 5 June.

'Truly proud'

The other names on the shortlist are Ali Smith for Hotel World; Jill Dawson for Fred and Edie; Kate Grenville with The Idea of Perfection and Rosina Lippi for Homestead.

The judging panel is headed by former newspaper editor Rosie Boycott who will be aided by singer Suzanne Vega, journalist Kate Aidie, novelist Emily Perkins and Dr Rachel Holmes of internet bookseller Amazon.

Ms Boycott said: "The exciting thing about this is the enormous breadth and depth of modern women's fiction.

"I'm delighted with the shortlist we've chosen. We have a list to be truly proud of and it'll be very difficult to choose one single winner from the six."