The all-female shortlist for the 2013 Miles Franklin Literary Award will be taking Miles On The Road for two Q&A style appearances in Brisbane and Canberra.
Founded by the estate of My Brilliant Career author Sarah Miles Franklin, who wrote “without an indigenous literature, people can remain alienated in their own soil”, the award celebrates Australian character and creativity, and supports authors for the advancement, improvement, and betterment of Australian literature. Each contestant will receive $5,000 with the winner of the $50,000 prize announced in Canberra on June 19.
The upcoming appearances will aim to engage a wider audience and promote discussion around the prestigious prize. Announced on 30 April, the 2013 Miles Franklin Literary Award has broken out of its recent “sausage fest” reputation with a shortlist of five female authors Romy Ash, Annah Faulkner, Michelle de Kretser, Drusilla Modjeska and Carrie Tiffany.
The narratives among the five novels are varied and distinctly Australian, from the 11 year old boy who narrates Ash's story of a family on the road in Floundering, to a lonely dairy farmer looking for love in Tiffany's Mateship with Birds and Kretser's Sri Lankan IT worker seeking a life in Australia in Questions of Travel.
Romy Ash and Annah Faulkner will appear in Brisbane June 5 at the State Library of Queensland.
