The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual
literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases".[1] The award was set up according to the
will of
Miles Franklin (1879–1954), who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career (1901). She bequeathed her estate to fund this award.[2] As of 2016, the award is valued at
A$60,000.[3]
Author
Frank Moorhouse was disqualified from consideration for his novel Grand Days because the story was set in Europe during the 1920s and was not sufficiently Australian.[57]
1995 winner
Helen Darville, also known as Helen Demidenko and Helen Dale, won for The Hand That Signed the Paper and sparked a debate about authenticity in Australian literature. Darville claimed to be of Ukrainian descent and said it was fiction based on family history. Writer
David Marr, who presented the award to her, said that revelations about her true background did not "alter a single thing about the quality of the story, it knocks completely out of the water her answers to critics who said it was not historically accurate, that she knows because of direct family experience, which appears to be complete bull----."[58]
Even before the hoax was revealed, Darville’s book was considered anti-Semitic and justified the genocide of Jewish people.[59] It was also later revealed that she plagiarised from multiple sources.[60]
In 2004, judges of the award resigned due to what they viewed as the commodification of the awards.[61]
2022 longlisted writer
John Hughes was accused of plagiarising significant sections of his 2021 book The Dogs from Nobel Laureate
Svetlana Alexievich's nonfiction book The Unwomanly Face of War. Nearly 60 similarities and identical sentences were found in a comparison of Hughes' novel and the English version of Alexievich's book. The Guardian newspaper also found similarities between incidents described in the books, including the central scene from which The Dogs takes its title.[62] Further investigation found other examples of plagiarism in the novel and that Hughes copied sections of classic texts including The Great Gatsby and Anna Karenina without acknowledging the original source.[63] The book was subsequently withdrawn from competition.
The
Stella Prize was created in 2013 as a reaction to the under-representation of women as winners of literary prizes, in particular the 2011 Miles Franklin Award shortlist.[64][65]
Shortlisted titles are only shown for the years 1987 onwards. No record has yet been found for any shortlists being released prior to that year. Winners are listed in bold type.
1980s
In 1989, the date changed from the year of publication to year of announcement, so no award was named in 1988.
Longlisted titles are only shown for the years 2005 onwards. That was the first year that such a list was released by the judging panel. The number of works included on the longlist varies from year to year.
^"Rodney Hall wins award". The Canberra Times. Vol. 57, no. 17, 397. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 18 May 1983. p. 3. Retrieved 24 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual
literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases".[1] The award was set up according to the
will of
Miles Franklin (1879–1954), who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career (1901). She bequeathed her estate to fund this award.[2] As of 2016, the award is valued at
A$60,000.[3]
Author
Frank Moorhouse was disqualified from consideration for his novel Grand Days because the story was set in Europe during the 1920s and was not sufficiently Australian.[57]
1995 winner
Helen Darville, also known as Helen Demidenko and Helen Dale, won for The Hand That Signed the Paper and sparked a debate about authenticity in Australian literature. Darville claimed to be of Ukrainian descent and said it was fiction based on family history. Writer
David Marr, who presented the award to her, said that revelations about her true background did not "alter a single thing about the quality of the story, it knocks completely out of the water her answers to critics who said it was not historically accurate, that she knows because of direct family experience, which appears to be complete bull----."[58]
Even before the hoax was revealed, Darville’s book was considered anti-Semitic and justified the genocide of Jewish people.[59] It was also later revealed that she plagiarised from multiple sources.[60]
In 2004, judges of the award resigned due to what they viewed as the commodification of the awards.[61]
2022 longlisted writer
John Hughes was accused of plagiarising significant sections of his 2021 book The Dogs from Nobel Laureate
Svetlana Alexievich's nonfiction book The Unwomanly Face of War. Nearly 60 similarities and identical sentences were found in a comparison of Hughes' novel and the English version of Alexievich's book. The Guardian newspaper also found similarities between incidents described in the books, including the central scene from which The Dogs takes its title.[62] Further investigation found other examples of plagiarism in the novel and that Hughes copied sections of classic texts including The Great Gatsby and Anna Karenina without acknowledging the original source.[63] The book was subsequently withdrawn from competition.
The
Stella Prize was created in 2013 as a reaction to the under-representation of women as winners of literary prizes, in particular the 2011 Miles Franklin Award shortlist.[64][65]
Shortlisted titles are only shown for the years 1987 onwards. No record has yet been found for any shortlists being released prior to that year. Winners are listed in bold type.
1980s
In 1989, the date changed from the year of publication to year of announcement, so no award was named in 1988.
Longlisted titles are only shown for the years 2005 onwards. That was the first year that such a list was released by the judging panel. The number of works included on the longlist varies from year to year.
^"Rodney Hall wins award". The Canberra Times. Vol. 57, no. 17, 397. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 18 May 1983. p. 3. Retrieved 24 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.