An all-female shortlist has been announced for this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award, guaranteeing a female winner for only the 14th time since the prestigious award was first presented in 1957.
This impressive representation of female talent comes just weeks after the inaugural Stella Prize was awarded – a new prize aimed at raising the profile of Australian women writers. Named after Stella Maria ‘Miles’ Franklin, the $50,000 Stella Prize was presented on April 16 to Western Australia-based novelist and agricultural journalist Carrie Tiffany, who has also been shortlisted for this year’s Miles Franklin Award. As the first ever winner of the new women’s writing award, Tiffany gave one-fifth of her prize money to the other five women shortlisted for the award.
With only 13 female winners in its 56 year history, the all-female Miles Franklin shortlist, which includes three first-time novelists, will see the fifth female winner since 2000, following last year’s winner Anna Funder, for her novel All That I Am.
“The shortlist demonstrates how strong Australia’s pipeline of female literary talent really is, as witnessed with last year’s Miles Franklin winner, Anna Funder, as well as by the growing number of first-time female authors included in the long and shortlists in recent years,” said Simon Lewis, head of philanthropy and community at The Trust Company, which manages the estate of the late Miles Franklin and has been trustee of the award since its creation.
The winner of the Miles Franklin Award will be announced on June 19 in Canberra at the National Library of Australia and will receive $60,000 for the novel judged to be of the highest literary merit, which “must present Australian life in any of its phases” in line with Miles Franklin’s wishes. Each of the shortlisted authors will also receive $5,000 in prize money.
The 2013 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist:
• Romy Ash, Floundering
• Annah Faulkner, The Beloved
• Michelle de Kretser, Questions of Travel
• Drusilla Modjeska, The Mountain
• Carrie Tiffany, Mateship with Birds