Six Australian writers have been shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Award at a ceremony held this evening at the State Library of NSW.
Among those shortlisted are debut authors, Michael Mohammed Ahmad (The Lebs) and Jennifer Mills (Dyschronia), and two-time Miles Franklin award winner, Rodney Hall (A Stolen Season). Gail Jones, whose book The Death of Noah Glass is also in the running, has previously been nominated for Australia’s top literary prize four times. This shortlisting comes off the back of her longlisting for the Stella Prize earlier this year. Fellow Stella nominee, Melissa Lucashenko has also been shortlisted for her novel, Too Much Lip. Gregory Day rounds out the six for his novel A Sand Archive. The Miles Franklin Award has always been a notoriously difficult award to predict, and this year is likely to be no exception.
A notable exclusion from the list was Trent Dalton, whose book Boy Swallows Universe has cleaned up in the Australian literary awards scene since its release last year, and has recently been optioned for a television series.
The six shortlisted writers each receive prize money of $5000 and will continue in the running for the main prize of $60 000 which will be awarded on the 30th of July. For more information on the prize, head to the Perpetual/ Miles Franklin website.
