McFarlane wins 2025 ALS Gold Medal

The Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) has announced Fiona McFarlane as the winner of the 2025 Australian Literature Society (ALS) Gold Medal for Highway 13 (A&U).

In the announcement, the organisation said, ‘Highway 13 is an inventive and dazzling short story cycle that yields the cohesiveness of a novel even while preserving the integrity of its individual stories.’

Previously announced was a longlist of 12 titles, followed by a shortlist of 7, with the winner announcement taking place last night, as part of the organisation’s conference.

This year’s judges were Brigid Rooney (chair), Joseph Steinberg and Margaret Harris.

Awarded annually for an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year, the ALS Gold Medal is Australia’s longest-running literary award.

Last year’s winner was Alexis Wright for Praiseworthy (Giramondo).

More information about the award is available on the ASAL website.

Category: Awards Local news