Bidisha, Kate Mosse, Mavis Cheek

With the announcement of the shortlist for the 2011 Orange Prize for fiction only a few days away, Bidisha speaks to internationally bestselling novelists Mavis Cheek and Kate Mosse, herself the founding of the Orange Prize 16 years ago, about women writers and the literary establishment. Women read, write, edit and promote the majority of all fiction – so why aren’t we winning the major prizes? Are old-fashioned attitudes still dominant in publishing, and what can be done to change this?