‘Extinctions’ wins prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award

Josephine Wilson has won Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, for her novel Extinctions, published by Western Australia–based small press UWA Publishing. The judging panel described Extinctions as ‘compassionate and unapologetically intelligent’. ‘In Extinctions, Josephine Wilson explores ageing, adoption, grief and remorse, empathy and self-centredness. The novel is a meditation on survival: on what people carry, on how they cope, and on why they might, after so much putting their head in the sand, come to the decision to engage, and even change.’ UWA Publishing director Terri-ann White said ‘emails started an hour after the announcement from publishers known and unknown checking on available rights’.

Jane Harper’s bestselling debut The Dry (Macmillan) has been honoured at the Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime writing and the Davitt Awards for crime books by Australian women. The judges of the Ned Kelly Awards described The Dry as ‘reminiscent of Wake in Fright’s claustrophobic atmosphere, deftly plotted, pacey and compulsively readable’. Among the other winners was Irish-Australian author Adrian McKinty’s Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly (Serpent’s Tail), the sixth book in the author’s ‘Sean Duffy’ series; and Cath Ferla’s debut novel Ghost Girls (Echo).

Avril Tremayne’s romance novel Escaping Mr Right (Random House) has taken out the top prize at the Romance Writers of Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year awards.

Finally, Australian bookseller Readings has announced the shortlist for its New Australian Fiction Award, which recognises ‘exciting and exceptional new contributions to local literature’.

Category: Think Aus magazine Think Australian awards