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The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases".[1] The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–1954), who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career (1901). She bequeathed her estate to fund this award.[2] As of 2016, the award is valued at A$60,000.[3]
| Miles Franklin Literary Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases |
| Sponsored by | Estate of Miles Franklin |
| Location | Australia |
| First awarded | 1957 |
| Website | Miles Franklin Award |
1957–1969
1970–1979
1980–1989
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Jessica Anderson | The Impersonators | Macmillan | [25] |
| 1981 | Peter Carey | Bliss | Faber and Faber | [26] |
| 1982 | Rodney Hall | Just Relations | Penguin Books | [27] |
| 1983 | No award | [28] | ||
| 1984 | Tim Winton | Shallows | Allen & Unwin | [29] |
| 1985 | Christopher Koch | The Doubleman | Chatto & Windus | [30] |
| 1986 | Elizabeth Jolley | The Well | Viking Press | [31] |
| 1987 | Glenda Adams | Dancing on Coral | Viking Press | [32] |
| 1988 | No award | Date changed from year of publication to year of announcement. |
||
| 1989 | Peter Carey | Oscar and Lucinda | University of Queensland Press | [33] |
1990–1999
2000–2009
2010–2019
2020–
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Tara June Winch | The Yield | Penguin Random House | [53] |
| 2021 | Amanda Lohrey | The Labyrinth | Text Publishing | [54] |
| 2022 | Jennifer Down | Bodies of Light | Text Publishing | [55] |
| 2023 | Shankari Chandran | Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens | Ultimo Press | [56] |
| 2024 | Alexis Wright | Praiseworthy | Giramondo | [57] |
Author Frank Moorhouse was disqualified from consideration for his novel Grand Days because the story was set in Europe during the 1920s and was not sufficiently Australian.[58]
1995 winner Helen Darville, also known as Helen Demidenko and Helen Dale, won for The Hand That Signed the Paper and sparked a debate about authenticity in Australian literature. Darville claimed to be of Ukrainian descent and said it was fiction based on family history. Writer David Marr, who presented the award to her, said that revelations about her true background did not "alter a single thing about the quality of the story, it knocks completely out of the water her answers to critics who said it was not historically accurate, that she knows because of direct family experience, which appears to be complete bull----."[59]
Even before the hoax was revealed, Darville’s book was considered anti-Semitic and justified the genocide of Jewish people.[60] It was also later revealed that she plagiarised from multiple sources.[61]
In 2004, judges of the award resigned due to what they viewed as the commodification of the awards.[62]
2022 longlisted writer John Hughes was accused of plagiarising significant sections of his 2021 book The Dogs from Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich's nonfiction book The Unwomanly Face of War. Nearly 60 similarities and identical sentences were found in a comparison of Hughes' novel and the English version of Alexievich's book. The Guardian newspaper also found similarities between incidents described in the books, including the central scene from which The Dogs takes its title.[63] Further investigation found other examples of plagiarism in the novel and that Hughes copied sections of classic texts including The Great Gatsby and Anna Karenina without acknowledging the original source.[64] The book was subsequently withdrawn from competition.
The Stella Prize was created in 2013 as a reaction to the supposed under-representation of women as winners of literary prizes, in particular the 2011 Miles Franklin Award shortlist. However, since 2013, only one man (A. S. Patrić in 2016) has won the Miles Franklin Award.[65][66]
- (4) Thea Astley: 1962, 1965, 1972, 2000
- (4) Tim Winton: 1984, 1992, 2002, 2009
- (3) Peter Carey: 1981, 1989, 1998
- (3) David Ireland: 1971, 1976, 1979
- (2) Jessica Anderson: 1978, 1980
- (2) Rodney Hall: 1982, 1994
- (2) Thomas Keneally: 1967, 1968
- (2) Michelle de Kretser: 2013, 2018
- (2) George Johnston: 1964, 1969
- (2) Christopher Koch: 1985, 1996
- (2) Alex Miller: 1993, 2003
- (2) Kim Scott: 2000, 2011
- (2) Patrick White: 1957, 1961
- (2) Alexis Wright: 2007, 2024[57]
Shortlisted titles are only shown for the years 1987 onwards. No record has yet been found for any shortlists being released prior to that year. Winners are listed in bold type.
1980s
In 1989, the date changed from the year of publication to year of announcement, so no award was named in 1988.
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Glenda Adams | Dancing on Coral | Winner |
| Murray Bail | Holden's Performance | Shortlist | |
| Nicholas Hasluck | Truant State | ||
| David Ireland | Bloodfather | ||
| Nancy Phelan | Home Is the Sailor | ||
| 1989 | Peter Carey | Oscar and Lucinda | Winner |
| Rodney Hall | Captivity Captive | Shortlist | |
| Mark Henshaw | Out of the Line of Fire | ||
| David Parker | Building on Sand | ||
| Janette Turner Hospital | Charades |
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Tara June Winch | The Yield | Winner |
| Carrie Tiffany | Exploded View | Shortlist[95] | |
| Philip Salom | The Returns | ||
| John Hughes | No One | ||
| Peggy Frew | Islands | ||
| Tony Birch | The White Girl | ||
| 2021 | Amanda Lohrey | The Labyrinth | Winner[54] |
| Aravind Adiga | Amnesty | Shortlist[96] | |
| Robbie Arnott | The Rain Heron | ||
| Daniel Davis Wood | At the Edge of the Solid World | ||
| Andrew Pippos | Lucky’s | ||
| Madeleine Watts | The Inland Sea | ||
| 2022 | Jennifer Down | Bodies of Light | Winner[55] |
| Michael Mohammed Ahmad | The Other Half of You | Shortlist[97] | |
| Michelle de Kretser | Scary Monsters | ||
| Alice Pung | One Hundred Days | ||
| Michael Winkler | Grimmish | ||
| 2023 | Shankari Chandran | Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens | Winner[56] |
| Kgshak Akec | Hopeless Kingdom | Shortlist[98] | |
| Robbie Arnott | Limberlost | ||
| Jessica Au | Cold Enough for Snow | ||
| Yumna Kassab | The Lovers | ||
| Fiona Kelly McGregor | Iris | ||
| 2024 | Alexis Wright | Praiseworthy | Winner[57] |
| Hossein Asgari | Only Sound Remains | Shortlist[99] | |
| Jen Craig | Wall | ||
| Andre Dao | Anam | ||
| Gregory Day | The Bell of the World | ||
| Sanya Rushdi | Hospital |
Longlisted titles are only shown for the years 2005 onwards. That was the first year that such a list was released by the judging panel. The number of works included on the longlist varies from year to year.
2005–2009
- Salt Rain, Sarah Armstrong
- The Gift of Speed, Steven Carroll
- Backwaters, Robert Engwarda
- The Ghost Writer, John Harwood
- The Broken Book, Susan Johnson
- Sixty Lights, Gail Jones
- A Private Man, Malcolm Knox
- The Philosopher's Doll, Amanda Lohrey
- The White Earth, Andrew McGahan
- I Have Kissed Your Lips, Gerard Windsor
- The Submerged Cathedral, Charlotte Wood
- The Last Ride, Denise Young
- Knitting, Anne Bartlett
- The Garden Book, Brian Castro
- The Secret River, Kate Grenville
- An Accidental Tourist, Stephen Lang
- The Ballad of Desmond Kale, Roger McDonald
- Prochownik's Dream, Alex Miller
- Sunnyside, Joanna Murray-Smith
- A Case of Knives, Peter Rose
- The Broken Shore, Peter Temple
- Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, Carrie Tiffany
- Dead Europe, Christos Tsiolkas
- The Wing of Night, Brenda Walker
- Theft: A Love Story, Peter Carey
- Silent Parts, John Charalambous
- The Unknown Terrorist, Richard Flanagan
- Beyond the Break, Sandra Hall
- Dreams of Speaking, Gail Jones
- The Unexpected Elements of Love, Kate Legge
- Careless, Deborah Robertson
- Carpentaria, Alexis Wright
- The Fern Tattoo, David Brooks
- The Time We Have Taken, Steven Carroll
- Love Without Hope, Rodney Hall
- Orpheus Lost, Janette Turner Hospital
- Sorry, Gail Jones
- The Widow and Her Hero, Thomas Keneally
- The Memory Room, Christopher Koch
- Landscape of Farewell, Alex Miller
- Secrets of the Sea, Nicholas Shakespeare
- The Pages, Murray Bail
- Wanting, Richard Flanagan
- Addition, Toni Jordan
- One Foot Wrong, Sofie Laguna
- Ice, Louis Nowra
- Fugitive Blue, Claire Thomas
- A Fraction of the Whole, Steve Toltz
- The Devil's Eye, Ian Townsend
- The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
- Breath, Tim Winton
2010–2019
2010[105]
- Figurehead, Patrick Allington
- Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey
- The Bath Fugues, Brian Castro
- Boy on a Wire, Jon Doust
- The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster
- Sons of the Rumour, David Foster
- Siddon Rock, Glenda Guest
- Butterfly, Sonya Hartnett
- The People's Train, Thomas Keneally
- Lovesong, Alex Miller
- Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey
- Truth, Peter Temple
2011[106]
- Rocks in the Belly, John Bauer
- The Good Daughter, Honey Brown
- The Mary Smokes Boys, Patrick Holland
- The Piper's Son, Melina Marchetta
- When Colts Ran, Roger McDonald
- Time's Long Ruin, Stephen Orr
- That Deadman Dance, Kim Scott
- The Legacy, Kirsten Tranter
- Bereft, Chris Womersley
2012[107]
- Blood, Tony Birch
- Spirit of Progress, Steven Carroll
- Spirit House, Mark Dapin
- The Precipice, Virginia Duigan
- All That I Am, Anna Funder
- Sarah Thornhill, Kate Grenville
- Five Bells, Gail Jones
- Foal's Bread, Gillian Mears
- Autumn Laing, Alex Miller
- Cold Light, Frank Moorhouse
- Past the Shallows, Favel Parrett
- The Street Sweeper, Elliot Perlman
- Animal People, Charlotte Wood
2013[108]
- Floundering, Romy Ash
- Lola Bensky, Lily Brett
- Street to Street, Brian Castro
- Questions of Travel, Michelle de Kretser
- The Beloved, Annah Faulkner
- The Daughters of Mars, Thomas Keneally
- The Mountain, Drusilla Modjeska
- The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman
- Mateship with Birds, Carrie Tiffany
- Red Dirt Talking, Jacqueline Wright
2014[109]
- The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, Tracy Farr
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan
- The Railwayman's Wife, Ashley Hay
- Mullumbimby, Melissa Lucashenko
- The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane
- Belomor, Nicolas Rothwell
- Game, Trevor Shearston
- My Beautiful Enemy, Cory Taylor
- Eyrie, Tim Winton
- The Swan Book, Alexis Wright
- All the Birds, Singing, Evie Wyld
2015[110]
- In Certain Circles, Elizabeth Harrower
- Golden Boys, Sonya Hartnett
- The Eye of the Sheep, Sofie Laguna
- The Golden Age, Joan London
- The Lost Child, Suzanne McCourt
- Here Come the Dogs, Omar Musa
- When the Night Comes, Favel Parrett
- After Darkness, Christine Piper
- Tree Palace, Craig Sherborne
- Nest, Inga Simpson
2016[111]
- Ghost River, Tony Birch
- Coming Rain, Stephen Daisley
- Hope Farm, Peggy Frew
- Leap, Myfanwy Jones
- The World Without Us, Mireille Juchau
- The Hands : An Australian Pastoral, Stephen Orr
- Black Rock White City, A. S. Patrić
- Salt Creek, Lucy Treloar
- The Natural Way of Things, Charlotte Wood
2017[112]
- The Easy Way Out, Steven Amsterdam
- An Isolated Incident, Emily Maguire
- The Last Days of Ava Langdon, Mark O'Flynn
- Their Brilliant Careers, Ryan O'Neill
- A Loving, Faithful Animal, Josephine Rowe
- Waiting, Philip Salom
- Where The Trees Are, Inga Simpson
- Hold, Kirsten Tranter
- Extinctions, Josephine Wilson
2018[113]
- A Long Way from Home, Peter Carey (Penguin Random House)
- No More Boats, Felicity Castagna (Giramondo Publishing)
- The Life to Come, Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin)
- The Crying Place, Lia Hills (Allen & Unwin)
- The Last Garden, Eva Hornung (Text Publishing)
- Some Tests, Wayne Macauley (Text Publishing)
- Storyland, Catherine McKinnon (HarperCollins Publishers)
- Border Districts, Gerald Murnane (Giramondo Publishing)
- From the Wreck, Jane Rawson (Transit Lounge)
- The Restorer, Michael Sala (Text Publishing)
- Taboo, Kim Scott (Picador Australia/Pan Macmillan Australia)
2019[114]
- The Lebs, Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Hachette)
- Flames, Robbie Arnott (Text Publishing)
- Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton (Fourth Estate)
- A Sand Archive, Gregory Day (Picador)
- Inappropriation, Lexi Freiman (Allen & Unwin)
- A Stolen Season, Rodney Hall (Picador)
- The Death of Noah Glass, Gail Jones (Text Publishing)
- Too Much Lip, Melissa Lucashenko (UQP)
- Dyschronia, Jennifer Mills (Picador)
- The Lucky Galah, Tracy Sorensen (Picador)
2020–
- The White Girl, Tony Birch (UQP)
- Room For a Stranger, Melanie Cheng (Text Publishing)
- Islands, Peggy Frew (Allen & Unwin)
- No One, John Hughes (UWA Publishing)
- Act of Grace, Anna Krien (Black Inc.)
- A Season on Earth, Gerald Murnane (Text Publishing)
- The Returns, Philip Salom (Transit Lounge)
- Exploded View, Carrie Tiffany (Text Publishing)
- The Yield, Tara June Winch (Hamish Hamilton)
- The Weekend, Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin)
- Amnesty, Aravind Adiga (Picador)
- The Rain Heron, Robbie Arnott (Text Publishing)
- Our Shadows, Gail Jones (Text Publishing)
- Infinite Splendours, Sofie Laguna (Allen & Unwin)
- The Labyrinth, Amanda Lohrey (Text Publishing)
- The Animals in That Country, Laura Jean McKay (Scribe)
- Lucky’s, Andrew Pippos (Picador)
- Stone Sky, Gold Mountain, Mirandi Riwoe (UQP)
- The Fifth Season, Philip Salom (Transit Lounge)
- Song of the Crocodile, Nardi Simpson (Hachette)
- The Inland Sea, Madeleine Watts (Pushkin Press)
- At the Edge of the Solid World, Daniel Davis Wood (Brio)
- The Other Half of You, Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Hachette)
- After Story, Larissa Behrendt (UQP)
- Scary Monsters, Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin)
- Bodies of Light, Jennifer Down (Text Publishing)
- Echolalia, Briohny Doyle (Vintage)
- The Magpie Wing, Max Easton (Giramondo Publishing)
- The Airways, Jennifer Mills (Picador)
- One Hundred Days, Alice Pung (Black Inc.)
- The Performance, Claire Thomas (Hachette)
- 7 ½, Christos Tsiolkas (Allen & Unwin)
- Grimmish, Michael Winkler (Puncher & Wattmann)
- Hopeless Kingdom, Kgshak Akec (UWA Publishing)
- Limberlost, Robbie Arnott (Text Publishing)
- Cold Enough for Snow, Jessica Au (Giramondo Publishing)
- Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, Shankari Chandran (Ultimo Press)
- Enclave, Claire G. Coleman (Hachette Australia)
- Losing Face, George Haddad (UQP)
- Forty Nights, Pirooz Jafari (Ultimo Press)
- Madukka: The River Serpent, Julie Janson(UWA Publishing)
- The Lovers, Yumna Kassab (Ultimo Press)
- Iris, Fiona Kelly McGregor (Pan Macmillan Australia)
- Waypoints, Adam Ouston (Puncher & Wattmann)
- Only Sound Remains, Hossein Asgari (Puncher & Wattmann)
- Wall, Jen Craig (Puncher & Wattmann)
- Strangers at the Port, Lauren Aimee Curtis (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
- Anam, André Dao (Hamish Hamilton)
- The Bell of the World, Gregory Day (Transit Lounge)
- Edenglassie, Melissa Lucashenko (UQP)
- The Sitter, Angela O'Keeffe (UQP)
- Hospital, Sanya Rushdi (Giramondo)
- Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin)
- Praiseworthy, Alexis Wright (Giramondo)
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