The winner of this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award is Wiradjuri woman Tara June Winch for her novel, The Yield.
It’s a stunning novel (see my review) so I’m pleased the judges thought so too.
The $60,000 prize is awarded to an Australian work for literature about “Australian Life in any of its phases”, thanks to the bequest of the author Miles Franklin.
Tara June Winch, a Wiradjuri woman, is the fourth Indigenous winner of the prize in its long history since 1957. Previous indigenous winners are
- 2007: Alexis Wright of the Waanyi people in the Gulf region of Queensland, for Carpentaria.
- 2000 and 2011: Kim Scott of the Noongar people of the southern coast of Western Australia, co-winner in 2000 for Benang (see my review) and in 2011 for That Deadman Dance (see my review) and
- 2019: Melissa Lucashenko of the Ygambeh/Bundjalung people of northern coastal New South Wales for her novel Too Much Lip, see my review
But there’s some fine reading in the shortlisted titles, so make sure you check them out as well. The other shortlisted titles were…
- The White Girl by Tony Birch, see my review
- Islands by Peggy Frew, see Jennifer’s review at Tasmanian Bibliophile at Large
- No One by John Hughes, on my TBR, see the review at the Sydney Review of Books and Kim’s review at Reading Matters
- The Returns by Philip Salom, see my review
- Exploded View by Carrie Tiffany, see my review
-
- 2019
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
That’s good- I’m glad she won it. Haven’t read the book though!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: residentjudge on July 16, 2020
at 6:39 pm
I was torn between The Yield and The Returns. I loved The Returns but I think The Yield is a more significant work, culturally speaking.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on July 16, 2020
at 10:45 pm
I’m delighted she won it. I’m a third of the way through it (had hoped to finish it in time but alas my bandwidth is a bit stretched at the moment) and I can already tell it’s doing something important.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: kimbofo on July 16, 2020
at 6:59 pm
Everything seems to take longer at the moment, and I am not even working like you are!
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on July 16, 2020
at 10:46 pm
My book club read for this month!
LikeLike
By: Theresa Smith Writes on July 16, 2020
at 7:08 pm
Good one!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on July 16, 2020
at 10:44 pm
It seemed fitting given where we live and one of our book clubbers is studying her masters in Indigenous literacy.
LikeLike
By: Theresa Smith Writes on July 16, 2020
at 10:57 pm
That would be an interesting topic for research…
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on July 16, 2020
at 11:05 pm
Congrats to Tara June Winch.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: smaxine27 on July 16, 2020
at 11:42 pm
It’s well-deserved. I hope you’ll be able to get a copy, I think you’ll find it fascinating.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on July 17, 2020
at 12:02 am