Miles Franklin Award shortlist announced

The shortlist has been announced for the Miles Franklin Literary Award—one of Australia’s most influential literary prizes. The judges have described the shortlist as ‘diverse and intelligent’.

Alexis Wright’s biography of Aboriginal leader, thinker and entrepreneur Tracker Tilmouth (Tracker, Giramondo) has won the biennial Magarey Medal for Biography. The book also won this year’s Stella Prize.

Two Australian poetry collections have recently picked up awards: Shastra Deo’s debut collection The Agonist (UQP) has won the Australian Literature Society (ALS) Gold Medal, beating out several former Miles Franklin winners and shortlistees in the process; and Quinn Eades’ Rallying (UWA Publishing) has won the Mary Gilmore Award.

The shortlist for the Australian Christian Book of the Year has also been announced.

Among international awards, an anthology by Australian speculative-fiction publisher Twelfth Planet Press has won a Locus Award for science-fiction and fantasy. Luminescent Threads (ed by Alexandra Pierce & Mimi Mondal) is a collection of tributes to science-fiction author Octavia E Butler.

Category: Think Australian awards