Amazing Miles Franklin Winner

Last night the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award was announced at a gala event held in the National Library of Canberra, and the winner was novel, Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser.  She is one of very few women to take out the award in its 59 year history.

The Miles Franklin is Australia’s most prestigious literary prize.  Established in 1954 in the Will of the author of My Brilliant Career, Stella Maria Sarah Mile Franklin, it is meant to encourage and support writers of Australian literature.  The annual award is given to the novel that has the highest literary metir in presenting “Australian life in any of its phases”.

The book was described by the judges as: ”A rich and ambitious but engaging novel of ideas. It traverses many of the issues which dominate political and cultural debate, but it does so with insight and a genuine narrative drive.”

”There are complex questions, which do not have neat, binary solutions, and the strength of the book is that the author doesn’t pretend that they do.”

Speaking on the podium last night, on behalf of the judging panel, Richard Neville, Mitchell Librarian of the State Library of NSW spoke keenly about Ms De Kretser’s novel…

“Michelle de Kretser’s wonderful novel, Questions of Travel, centres on two characters, with two stories, each describing a different journey. The stories intertwine and pull against one another, and within this double narrative, de Kretser explores questions of home and away, travel and tourism, refugees and migrants, as well as ‘questions of travel’ in the virtual world, charting the rapid changes in electronic communication that mark our lives today.

“She brings these large questions close-up and personal with her witty and poignant observations and her vivid language. Her novel is about keeping balance in a speeding, spinning world.”

Richard Neville was joined on the judging panel by Murray Waldren, journalist and columnist at The Australian newspaper; Anna Low, a Sydney-based bookseller; Craig Munro biographer, book historian, publishing editor and founding chair of the Queensland Writers Centre and  Emeritus Professor Susan Sheridan.

The shortlist for the Miles Franklin Award is unprecedented this year, as it contained all women.  There have in fact been very few women selected as winners of the award in its 59 year history.

Her fellow 2013 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlisted authors were; Romy Ash – Floundering; Annah Faulkner – The Beloved;Drusilla Modjeska – The Mountain and Carrie Tiffany – Mateship with Birds.

Questions of Travel is de Kretser’s fourth novel.