Earlier today UK time the shortlist for this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award was announced.
The shortlisted titles are:
- Hope Farm by Peggy Frew (Scribe)
- Leap by Myfanwy Jones (Allen & Unwin)
- Black Rock White City by AS Patric (Transit Lounge)
- Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar (Pan Macmillian):
- The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin)
I plan on reviewing all the titles (provided I can get hold of Myfanwy Jones’ novel, which doesn’t seem to have been made available on this side of the planet). Do keep coming back to this post as I will update the hyperlinks above as and when I review each title.
In the meantime, check out Lisa’s reviews, which she has listed here.
The winner of the $60,000 prize will be announced on 26 August.
Reading Matters 
Hope Farm seems to be the title that has a few bloggers perplexed because they didnt rate it as much as the judges clearly did. I had a look at your review and you seemed to be of that mind too?
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Yes, it’s a good book and enjoyable story, but I don’t see it as a literary standout. I’m surprised by its inclusion on the list, but then I haven’t read everything on the longlist and don’t know what should have gone on it instead. Though I have heard very good things about The Hands, which I’ve bought but not yet read.
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Hi Kim, thanks for the referral.
BTW I think your date for the winners announcement might possibly be wrong. An August date would coincide with the Melbourne Writers Festival, and they do like to rotate around the city where the announcement is made and it’s probably our turn again – but the Perpetual website which manages the Trust says (checked just now) an unspecified date in June (See http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/keydates) – but given that this site isn’t always updated in a timely manner, it might not be correct. (Tardiness is their middle name: I’m signed up for email updates from the MF but I still haven’t received a press release. It them *hours* to tweet the shortlist, long after the rest of the media had done their job for them).
*pause* *baffled shrug*
*cross out all of the above and start again*
I just checked the MF Twitter feed, and yes, you are right, they have announced August 26 as the date. But thanks to Twitter’s strange new way of streaming our newsfeeds, it’s not showing up on my feed, even though the MF and I follow each other. I had to go direct to their feed to see it.
It’s surprising that Leap isn’t released in the UK given that A&U have an office there. #CrazyThought Maybe they think it’s too ‘Melbourne’ for an international audience?
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Oh that Perpetual website is a perpetual crock of you know what! I’ve never come across a more useless website in my life. I’m not surprised they’re rubbish at social media, too. If they were really savvy they’d employ a book blogger to do it for them!
I got the date from the Guardian article about the shortlist, so pleased to see it was right as I didn’t bother fact checking it. (I fact check all day at work; I don’t need to do it at home too. LOL.)
And yes, I don’t know why Leap isn’t available here. I’ve ordered it from Readings website as I’ve just found out they have a flat $22 shipping fee to the UK, so I bought Helen Garner’s essay collection while I was at it. Will be interesting to see how long the package takes to arrive. The Text Publishing site takes 5 days, which is mightily impressive!
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I don’t know if they employed a publicist this year… in previous years publicists have contacted me to do author interviews, invited me to the ceremony, nagged me (gently) about reviews etc, but this year, not even a press release. LOL Maybe they’ve crossed me off their Xmas card list…
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I suspect they haven’t employed a publicist, because a publicist would be making sure the social media was done properly and they’d be getting that website updated. If I lived in Oz I’d be pitching my services to them. It just makes the whole award look shabby. I know you’re not a fan of the Stella Prize but their publicity/social media campaign was spot on and gave the prize a real “buzz” that the MF completely lacks.
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I think it’s because Perpetual is a trust company more used to managing legal things than events, they are a bit clueless. On the other hand, they’ve done a good job of investing a small amount of money so that the prize is still going after all these years.
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