2009 SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

The Secret Shopper's Revenge by Kate Harrison. Orion

Bridesmaids by Jane Costello. Pocket Books

Recipe For Disaster by Miriam Morrison. Arrow

A Winter's Tale by Trisha Ashley. Avon

The Marriage Bureau For Rich People by Farahad Zama. Abacus

The Importance Of Being Emma by Juliet Archer. ChocLit

For more about the Melissa Nathan Foundation click here

JOANNA TROLLOPE LOVES CHICK-LIT...

In the Guardian today, British grand dame of popular fiction, Joanna Trollope -- she really isn't as scary as her picture would suggest -- tells the world that she had so much fun judging the Melissa Nathan Award last year, that she and fellow judges Jo Brand, Sophie Kinsella, Jessica Hines, Gaynor Allen (chief fiction buyer for Tesco) and Alan Davies want to do it again in an article headed --

WHY I LOVE CHICK-LIT

(Bet you never thought you'd seen that in a Guardian headline!)

"People sneer at these books, but wittily told romantic fiction is as hard to write as it is fun to read... "

Read on here

Here's the 2008 shortlist.

HEAVEN SENT by Christina Jones (Little, Brown)

MRS ZHIVAGO OF QUEEN’S PARK by Olivia Lichtenstein (Orion)

31 DREAM STREET by Lisa Jewell (Penguin)

THE SECRET LIFE OF A SLUMMY MUMMY by Fiona Neill (Arrow)

A GIRL’S GUIDE TO KISSING FROGS by Victoria Clayton (HarperCollins)

MERDE HAPPENS by Stephen Clarke (Transworld)