London: Two Indian-origin authors - Rupa Bajwa and Jhumpa Lahiri - are among 20 women writers in race for the coveted £ 30,000 Orange Prize this year.

Bajwa was selected for her novel 'The Sari Shop', while Lahiri was chosen for 'The Namesake', about a Bengali boy in the US.

Among the first-time novelists in the list are Monica Ali, an Anglo-Bangladeshi writer whose 'Brick Lane' was nominated for the Man Booker prize.

The 20 books from which this year's winner will be chosen come from nine English-speaking countries.

The chair of the judges' panel, the broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, called the list "a great shelf of work where the famous and the fledgling writer, the serious and the satirical, all stand together banging the drum for the glory of the English language. I'm sure the judges weren't meant to have this much fun".

Besides the two Indians, there are 10 British authors including one of Bangladeshi origin, six from the US, a Canadian and a South African - Gillian Slovo, whose narrative of the Stalinist crackdowns in 1930s Russia, 'The Ice Road', was described as magnificent in the 'Guardian Saturday' review at the weekend.

More established writers on the list include Margaret Atwood (Canada) and Zoe Heller (Britain).

The list will be cut from 20 to about six on April 27 and the winner will be announced on June 8. The prize, for women authors of any nationality, is in its ninth year. A new £ 10,000 prize, the Orange Award for New Writers, has also been announced to reward first-time novelists.