Orange Prize 2009 nominee Kamila Shamsie has been awarded the 2010 Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize for her novel Burnt Shadows.

Jury chair Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is director of the Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, said

'The 2010 Anisfield-Wolf winners are among the most influential voices in today's global society,
challenging conventional thinking and prodding us to think beyond what we believe to be true.

'In celebrating the 75th anniversary of this internationally renowned prize, it is appropriate to look beyond singular works and recognise writers and thinkers who, over time, have opened our minds to the possibilities of more than our individual place in societies, but our individual places in the world.'

Burnt Shadows bookends the period between August 1945 in Nagasaki, Japan and September 2001 in the US. 'It tells the story of two linked families with a complicated shared history that demonstrates how small and connected the world truly is.'

Ms Shamsie has also received the Danish Literature Prize ALOA 2010 for the Danish translation of her novel. She received the prize at a ceremony held in Copenhagen. Pakistan's ambassador to Denmark Fauzia Abbas also attended the ceremony.

The Danish literature prize is awarded to writers from Africa, Asia, Latin America or Oceania who have had one or more books released in Danish.