The Miles Franklin Literary Award is Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the equivalent of the UK’s Man Booker Prize.
The prize is for “a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases” and was set up according to the wishes of Australian author (Stella) Miles Franklin, who bequeathed her estate to fund it.
I plan on reading all of the books that have won since the prize was inaugurated in 1957. Hyperlinks will take you to my reviews. Those marked * have not been reviewed, because I read them before I began this blog.
1957: Voss by Patrick White
1958: To the Islands by Randolph Stow
1959: The Big Fellow by Vance Palmer (Out Of Print)
1960: The Irishman by Elizabeth O’Conner (OOP)
1961: Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White
1962: The Well Dressed Explorer by Thea Astley; and The Cupboard Under the Stairs by George Turner (Both OOP)
1963: Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott
1964: My Brother Jack by George Johnston*
1965: The Slow Natives by Thea Astley
1966: Trap by Peter Mathers (OOP)
1967: Bring Larks and Heroes by Thomas Keneally
1968: Three Cheers for the Paraclete by Thomas Keneally (OOP)
1969: Clean Straw for Nothing by George Johnston*
1970: A Horse of Air by Dal Stivens (OOP)
1971: The Unknown Industrial Prisoner by David Ireland
1972: The Acolyte by Thea Astley (OOP)
1973: No award
1974: The Mango Tree by Ronald McKie (OOP)
1975: Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert
1976: The Glass Canoe by David Ireland
1977: Swords and Crowns and Rings by Ruth Park
1978: Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson*
1979: A Woman of the Future by David Ireland
1980: The Impersonators by Jessica Anderson (OOP)
1981: Bliss by Peter Carey Bliss
1982: Just Relations by Rodney Hall
1983: No award
1984: Shallows by Tim Winton
1985: The Doubleman by Christopher Koch (OOP)
1986: The Well by Elizabeth Jolley
1987: Dancing on Coral by Glenda Adams
1988: No award (Date changed from year of publication to year of announcement)
1989: Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey*
1990: Oceana Fine by Tom Flood (OOP)
1991: The Great World by David Malouf*
1992: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton*
1993: The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller
1994: The Grisly Wife by Rodney Hall (OOP)
1995: The Hand That Signed the Paper by Helen Demidenko
1996: Highways to a War by Christopher Koch
1997: The Glade Within by David Foster (OOP)
1998: Jack Maggs by Peter Carey*
1999: Eucalyptus by Murray Bail*
2000: Drylands by Thea Astley; and Benang by Kim Scott
2001: Dark Palace by Frank Moorhouse (OOP)
2002: Dirt Music by Tim Winton
2003: Journey to the Stone Country by Alex Miller
2004: The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
2005: The White Earth by Andrew McGahan
2006: The Ballad of Desmond Kale by Roger McDonald (OOP)
2007: Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
2008: The Time we have Taken by Steven Carroll
2009: Breath by Tim Winton
2010: Truth by Peter Temple
2011: That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
2012: All That I Am by Anna Funder
2013: Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser
2014: All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
2015: The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna
2016: Black Rock White City by A. S. Patrić
2017: Extinctions by Josephine Wilson
2018: The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser
2019: Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
2020: The Yield by Tara June Winch
2021: The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey
2022: Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
Reading Matters 