'Refreshing humour and nuance' shine in women's fiction prize shortlist of six

The American writers Miranda July and Elizabeth Strout have been shortlisted for the 30th Women's prize for fiction alongside four debut authors.

- Ella Creamer

The six titles in contention for the £30,000 prize all draw on "the importance of human connection" in different ways, said the writer and judging chair Kit de Waal. "What is surprising and refreshing is to see so much humour, nuance and lightness employed by these novelists to shed light on challenging concepts."

July was selected for All Fours, which follows a 45-year-old artist who sets out on a road trip across the US but decides to check into a motel room close to home instead, where she begins a sexless affair with a younger man. The novel was described as "acerbically clever, radically compassionate", in a Guardian review by Lara Feigel.

Strout - who has previously been longlisted four times and shortlisted twice - was this time chosen for Tell Me Everything, in which characters from her previous novels, Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton, meet. Writing in the Guardian, Elizabeth Lowry described the novel as "taciturn but deeply felt and profoundly intelligent".