Miles Franklin Literary Award

In preparation for AusReading Month in November I will be posting lists of Australian classics and literary awards to help you get started with your love and appreciation of Australian literature.

I'm looking forward to reading your reviews and views.

The Miles Franklin Literary Award is named after Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin who was born on the 14th October 1879 on Talbingo station. Talbingo is a tiny township in southern NSW sitting on the north-western edge of the Snowy Mountains. The original village was moved in the 1960's to accommodate the Snowy Mountain Hydro Electric Scheme.

Franklin's family moved a little to the east to Brindabella Station when she was a child. She was the eldest daughter of two Australian born parents (which is noteworthy for the time as most of the population were new immigrants). In fact, one of Franklin's great-great grandfathers was a convict on the First Fleet.

Franklin's most famous novel, My Brilliant Career, is a coming of age story about a feisty, rural, feminist Sybylla. Franklin wrote this during her teenage years and was it loosely based on her own life. It was published in 1901. A movie was also made in 1979 which rekindled interest in the story and Miles Franklin all over again.

Franklin died in 1954. Her will set up an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases".

For lists of the longlisted and shortlisted books for the Miles Franklin click here.

2013 Questions of Travel – Michelle De Kretser


2012 All That I Am – Anna Funder


2011 That Deadman Dance – Kim Scott


2010 Truth – Peter Temple


2009 Breath – Tim Winton


2008 The Time We Have Taken – Steven Carroll


2007 Carpentaria – Alexis Wright


2006 The Ballad of Desmond Kale – Roger McDonald


2005 The White Earth – Andrew McGahan


2004 The Great Fire – Shirley Hazzard


2003 Journey to the Stone Country – Alex Miller


2002 Dirt Music – Tim Winton


2001 The Dark Palace – Frank Moorhouse


2000 Drylands – Thea Astley & Benang – Kim Scott


1999 Eucalyptus – Murray Bail


1998 Jack Maggs – Peter Carey


1997 The Glade within the Grovw – David Foster


1996 Highways to a War – Christopher Koch


1995 The Hand that Signed the Paper – Helen Demidenko


1994 The Grisly Wife – Rodney Hall


1993 The Ancestor Game – Alex Miller


1992 Cloudstreet – Tim Winton


1991 The Great World – David Malouf


1990 Oceana Fine – Tom Flood


1989 Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey


1988 The year of the Award was changed to the year granted rather than the year published.


1987 Dancing on Coral – Glenda Adams


1986 The Well – Elizabeth Jolley


1985 The Doubleman – Christopher Koch


1984 Shallows – Tim Winton


1983 No award


1982 Just Relations – Rodney Hall


1981 Bliss – Peter Carey


1980 The Impersonators – Jessica Anderson


1979 A Woman of the Future – David Ireland


1978 Tirra Lirra by the River – Jessica Anderson


1977 Swords and Crowns and Rings – Ruth Park


1976 The Glass Canoe – David Ireland


1975 Poor Fellow My Country – Xavier Herbert


1974 The Mango Tree – Ronald McKie


1973 No award


1972 The Acolyte – Thea Astley


1971 The Unknown Industrial Prisoner – David Ireland


1970 A Horse of Air – Dal Stivens


1969 Clean Straw For Nothing – George Johnston


1968 Three Cheers For the Paraclete – Thomas Keneally


1967 Bring Larks and Heroes – Thomas Keneally


1966 Trap – Peter Mathers


1965 The Slow Natives – Thea Astley


1964 My Brother Jack – George Johnston


1963 Careful He Might Hear You – Summer Locke Elliott


1962 The Well Dressed Explorer – Thea Astley & The Cupboard Under The Stairs – George Turner


1961 Riders in the Chariot – Patrick White


1960 The Irishman – Elizabeth O’Connor


1959 The Big Fellow – Vance Palmer


1958 To The Islands - Randolph Stow


1957 Voss - Patrick White

Happy Birthday Stella!