Miles Franklin Literary Award

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.

"Australia’s most prestigious literary award was established through the will of the writer Stella Miles Franklin, best known for her novel My Brilliant Career. The bequest came as a surprise to the literary world as Franklin had told nobody – 

save her trustees – of her plans.

Miles Franklin had first-hand experience of the struggle to make a living as a writer and was herself the beneficiary of two literary prizes. She was also extremely conscious of the importance of fostering a uniquely Australian literature. She wrote,

"Without an indigenous literature, 

people can remain alien in their own soil."

Accordingly, the Award is presented each year to a novel which is of the 

highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases.

The Miles Franklin was first awarded in 1957. Since then, the annual announcement of the winner has become an event anticipated and discussed throughout Australia and around the world."   (MFLA website)

2020 The Yield by Tara June Winch
2019 Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
2018 The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser
2017 Extinctions by Josephine Wilson
2016 Black Rock White City - A.S. Patrić
2015 The Eye of the Sheep - Sofie Laguna
2014 All the Birds, Singing - Evie Wyld
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 (R)

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 (R)

2000 Drylands – Thea Astley

         Benang – Kim Scott

1999 Eucalyptus – Murray Bail (R)

1998 Jack Maggs – Peter Carey

1997 The Glade within the Grove – 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 (R) 

1991 The GreatWorld – David Malouf

1990 Oceana Fine – Tom Flood

1989 Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey (R)

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 (R)

1985 The Doubleman – Christopher Koch

1984 Shallows – Tim Winton (R)

1983 No award

1982 Just Relations – Rodney Hall

1981 Bliss – Peter Carey (R)

1980 The Impersonators – Jessica Anderson

1979 A Woman of the Future – David Ireland

1978 Tirra Lirra by the River – Jessica Anderson

1977 Swords andCrowns 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

         The Cupboard Under The Stairs – George Turner

1962 The Well Dressed Explorer – Thea Astley

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

(R) Read but not reviewed

Reading challenges related to the Miles Franklin lists:

Miles of Reading Challenge
Play, Eat, Learn, Live

If your name is not on this list and you would like to be added please leave me the link to your blog
(or the page where your Miles challenge is listed) in the comments below.