There are some interesting choices on this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist… here they are:
Ghost River by Tony Birch, UQP, see my review
Coming Rain by Stephen Daisley, Text Publishing, see my review
Hope Farm by Peggy Frew, Scribe, see my review, Kim’s at Reading Matters and Kate’s at Books are My Favourite and Best Thing
Leap by Myfanwy Jones, Allen & Unwin, see my review
The World Without Us, Bloomsbury, by Mirielle Juchau. See my review and Kim’s at Reading Matters
The Hands, an Australian Pastoral by Stephen Orr, Wakefield Press, see my review and a Sensational Snippet
Black Rock White City by A.S. Patric, Transit Lounge see my review
Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar, Pan Macmillan, see my review
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood, Allen & Unwin, see my review and Kim’s at Reading Matters
Congratulations to all the authors, editors and publishers!
The shortlist will be announced in May and the winner in June.
“There are some interesting choices on this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist…”
That sounds ominous ;)
By: Tony on April 5, 2016
at 3:59 pm
Naughty boy, you are trying to second-guess me! There are three there that I think would be worthy winners indeed, three I haven’t read, two that I’ve ordered from the library because they didn’t appeal enough for me to buy them (but I could be wrong about them) – and that’s all I’m going to say…
By: Lisa Hill on April 5, 2016
at 4:30 pm
What an interesting list… there’s a little bit of crossover with the Stella Prize shortlist, which means I’ve read three (The Natural Way of Things, Hope Farm and The World Without Us).
By: kimbofo on April 5, 2016
at 5:03 pm
I know you have, and I have just found two of them on your index page, but your search box drew a complete blank for all three. Can you please find the Wood, and post the URL here as a comment? Thanks:)
By: Lisa Hill on April 5, 2016
at 5:14 pm
Hi Lisa, thanks for the ping backs. I haven’t reviewed the Wood yet, which is why you won’t have found it. I plan to review it before the 12th (when the Stella Prize is announced).
As an aside, have you seen the new MF award website? It’s dire. No information about prize dates, prize money etc. I know the prize needs to be sponsored, but the website has all the look and feel and usability of a big corporation. The priority is all wrong. This kind of stuff makes me mad, because I know as a journalist/editor it could be done so much better.
By: kimbofo on April 5, 2016
at 5:48 pm
Yes, I did see it. They haven’t even acknowledged the publishers, which is a real shame because this is a real moment of glory for some of the small indie publishers.
*sour smile* Makes you wonder how much of the trust money was wasted on setting it up…
By: Lisa Hill on April 5, 2016
at 8:16 pm
Well, I suspect none of the trust money was spent on it. I suspect they’ve asked the sponsor to sort the site in exchange for promoting their own brand, hence what looks like a complete absence of editorial control to me. It’s merely a “mini site” attached to the sponsor’s corporate site. This stuff really winds me up. Can you tell? LOL.
By: kimbofo on April 6, 2016
at 4:57 am
Perpetual isn’t the sponsor, Perpetual manage the trust, like a solicitor would, I guess. That is, they hold the capital that Miles Franklin left in the bequest and they invest it and they dole it out each year.
I don’t think the MF has a sponsor, and I suspect it couldn’t without some sleight of hand. I think it has donors, because the amount of money has gone up in recent years. If you leave money in your Will for something, other people might be able to add to it but only without contravening the original terms of the bequest.
People carry on about Miles Franklin stipulating that the book has to be Australian in orientation but it was her money, and that’s what she wanted. She wanted a prize to reward people who wrote about Australia and Australians.
BTW I’m in the middle of reading The Orenda (a sort of tribute to Kevin) but I sneaked a 40-page peek at Salt Creek last night. Try to get a copy of it if you can, I think you’d like it.
By: Lisa Hill on April 6, 2016
at 7:48 am
Ah, I’ll need to tweak my post to make it clear they manage the trust… I’m afraid I had a bit of a rant about the website! Even the press release you kindly sent me lacks basic info on key dates and prize money.
Re: Salt Creek; I’m desperate to read it. The author, via Twitter, says the book is still seeking a British publisher, so I don’t expect it’s going to be available any time soon. I will have to bite the bullet and order one from Australia even though postage will cost more than the book itself!
By: kimbofo on April 6, 2016
at 1:13 pm
*sigh* Some publicists are better than others, and yes, some websites are definitely better than others.
By: Lisa Hill on April 6, 2016
at 1:40 pm
[…] Note that Lisa Hill has a round-up post, including links to reviews, on her blog AnzLitLovers. […]
By: The 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist | Reading Matters on April 6, 2016
at 12:16 am
I am still to read Leap, which I will pick up from my library tomorrow. The list is varied, but to me so far, none is a stand out winner. Maybe Ghost River, because of its landscape being in Melbourne. I connected to the the area and the era well.
By: Meg on April 7, 2016
at 2:00 pm
I’m a bit surprised not to see Susan Johnson’s The Landing listed in this company… and Steve Toltz’s Quicksand… maybe their dates of publication made them ineligible…
By: Lisa Hill on April 7, 2016
at 2:21 pm
[…] a very different style, tone and characterisation for her novel, a novel which justly deserves its nomination for this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award. (It has already won the Indie Book of the Year (Debut Fiction Category) […]
By: Salt Creek, by Lucy Treloar | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on April 8, 2016
at 7:35 am
[…] novel, and it’s longlisted for the 2016 Miles Franklin Award. (See the rest of the longlist here). Although its setting is a hippie commune in decline, it’s an elegy for kids brought up in […]
By: Hope Farm, by Peggy Frew | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on May 18, 2016
at 3:22 pm