Miller's 'Achilles' wins Orange Prize

American author Madeline Miller has won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction with her debut novel "The Song of Achilles," it was announced Wednesday in London. The award celebrates "excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world," organizers said. Chair of Judges Joanna Trollope presented Miller with the $46,000 prize and the Bessie, a limited-edition bronze figurine, at the Royal Festival Hall in Southbank Centre. "This is a more than worthy winner -- original, passionate, inventive and uplifting. Homer would be proud of her," Trollope said, referring to the author of the Greek classics "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey," which inspired Miller's Greek myth-themed book. The ceremony was presided over by Orange Prize for Fiction Co-Founder and Honorary Director Kate Mosse.