Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023 shortlist announced

The shortlist for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award, worth $60,000, has been announced.

The six longlisted novels, chosen from a longlist of 11 announced in May, are:

• Hopeless Kingdom (Kgshak Akec, UWAP)
• Limberlost (Robbie Arnott, Text)
• Cold Enough for Snow (Jessica Au, Giramondo)
• Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Shankari Chandran, Ultimo)
• The Lovers (Yumna Kassab, Ultimo)
• Iris (Fiona Kelly McGregor, Pan Macmillan).

This year’s judging panel comprises State Library of NSW Mitchell librarian Richard Neville, critics Bernadette Brennan and James Ley, scholar Mridula Nath Chakraborty, and writer and editor Elfie Shiosaki. The judges said the 2023 shortlist celebrates six works ‘that delve deeply into archives and memory, play confidently with style and structure and strike new grounds in language and form’. ‘From deeply immersive tales to polished jewels of craft, from lyrical mappings of land to convention-breaking chronicles, this is novel-writing at its freshest and boldest,’ the judges said.

Each shortlisted winner receives $5000. The winner of this year’s award will be announced on 25 July.

Jennifer Down was the winner of the 2022 Miles Franklin for her novel Bodies of Light (Text). For more information, see award sponsor Perpetual’s website.

Category: Awards Local news