Sydney Writers' Festival 2026 - Early Sessions

Having missed the past two Sydney Writers' Festivals (2024 and 2025) as they clashed with my overseas travel, I was desperate to get back to this world of books and writers that I love so much. 

The 2026 program was released in March and I quickly purchased tickets to sessions spanning six days during which I will be seeing a wide range of authors including: Randa Abedel-Fattah; Jacinda Ardern; Robbie Arnott; Tony Birch; Nick Bryant; Shannon Chandran; Susan Choi; Roddy Doyle; Mariana Enriquez; AC Grayling; Lev Grossman; Chris Hammer; Mick Herron; Tayari Jones; Lily King; RF Kuang; Antoinette Lattouf; Yann Martel; Kate McClymont; Charlotte McConaghy; Dervla McTiernan; Suzie Miller; Amy Remeikis; Heather Rose; Niki Savva; David Szalay; Tasma Walton and Charlotte Wood. What fun!

I have taken some time off work, packed some snacks, and have switched into book-nerd mode. Over the coming days I will publish a series of posts about my time at the festival, starting here with the early sessions I attended on 19 and 20 May 2026.

The Story That Changed My Life

I am kicking off SWF2026 with a session with acclaimed journalists - Kate McClymont (SMH/The Age), Anton Enus (SBS World News), Avani Dias (ABC Four Corners), Lyse Doucet (BBC), Lorena Allam (The Guardian) and Patrick Radden Keefe (The New Yorker) - speaking about the stories that transformed their careers.

Kate McClymont

Kate McClymont's story that changed her life was about street poles in Sydney. It was back in 1999 and there was a contract to design and manufacture street poles for the City of Sydney Council. Two engineers told McClymont that they has been approached by sons of Member of NSW Parliament Eddie Obeid and told that they would ensure they got the Olympic contract if the Obeid's got the pole contract. It sounded dodgy so McClymont started investigating this. She soon uncovered widespread corruption and spent the next decade or so writing stories about the disgraced Obeid, despite the defamation suits, intimidation and threats. Her career as a journalist flourished, all thanks to a seemingly innocuous story about street poles. 

Avani Dias

Avani Dias was stationed in India as ABC's Bureau Chief from 2021-2024. There she filed stories on the Modi government, which outwardly claimed to be democratic, but was actually clamping down on free speech and silencing journalists. After reporting on the alleged assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh (which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed was a state sanctioned assassination), Dias faced intimidation by the Modi government. She had her passport flagged and was told her press credentials and visa would not be renewed. Dias spoke passionately about the importance of a free press and the attempts to silence the media both overtly through bullying and arrest and more subtly through intimidation. 

Lyse Doucet

Canadian journalist Lyse Doucet was a dynamic presence, choosing to walk about the stage rather than speak from the podium. She spoke about 'the angels of journalism' who helped guide her career, from a young reporter in Africa to eventually being stationed in Afghanistan for the BBC. She was animated, humorous and distinctly Canadian! I enjoyed her insights to the challenges of working as a foreign correspondent, especially in countries which are not friendly to journalists or women. Her most recent book - The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan - has been shortlisted for the 2026 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. 

Anton Enus

Anton Enus grew up in South Africa during apartheid. His early years as a journalist were spent covering the uprisings and massacres. He described reporting from massacres and how they became so commonplace that some of his fellow journalists became numbed to the brutality. He spoke of an elderly woman who had lost her loved ones and how here was a woman who was already dispossessed and downtrodden and then destroyed by violence. Enus described the excellent producers he had which stressed the importance of their work and the need for truth in story telling. He also recommended some excellent books on this time in Africa. 

Lorena Allam

Lorena Allam described her work at the Guardian on The Killing Times - a project mapping and uncovering Colonial Frontier War massacres. Working with University of Newcastle researchers, Allam helped uncover the stories of massacres by colonists and the Native Police, and documented stories of their descendants. This is an important work of truth-telling and reconciliation. Allam is descended from the Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay people, and has recently been appointed as a Professor in Truth-Telling Research at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney. 

Patrick Radden Keefe

I was super excited to hear from Patrick Radden Keefe as I have just finished his brilliant book London Falling (2026).  Radden Keefe wanted to be a journalist since he was a teenager, and after many rejection letters from The New Yorker, he was eventually given a job. He was asked to wrote a long-form piece on the Amy Bishop case, where Bishop had been denied tenure at the University of Alabama and so pulled out a gun and shot six of her colleagues, killing three. Radden Keefe was not so interested in the mass shooting, which are unfortunately commonplace in America, but he soon learned there was more to this case and that Bishop had shot and killed someone before. His story was published on 3 February 2013 in as 'A Loaded Gun'. He explained that this story taught him a lot about the craft of journalism and about human nature, and the lessons he learned have carried him throughout his career. 

Overall, a brilliant panel to start my SWF2026!

Patrick Radden Keefe, Anton Enus, Lorena Allam,
Lyse Douset, Kate McClymont, Avani Dias

Show Me The Truth Gala

The theme for SWF2026 is 'Show Me The Truth'. This gala featured incredible storytellers - Robbie Arnott (Dusk, Limberlost), Nikita Gill (Hekate), Lily King (Heart the Lover), Scottish poet Michael Pederson (Muckle Flugga) - along with Kirli Saunders of Cooee music. Each spoke about how writers distil the truth in a world of misinformation. 

Yvonne Weldon AM

What a wonderful opening event! It began with a stirring Welcome to Country by Yvonne Weldon AM, the first Aboriginal Council member in the City of Sydney. Weldon spoke of reconciliation and the role each of us play in bringing people together. She also spoke of the controversy around Welcome to Country and the misunderstanding some in the community have about its purpose. 

Tania Brown and Kirli Saunders as Cooee

The session then started with a performance by Cooee, where Kirli Saunders' poetry has been put to music. Accompanied by Tania Bowra on guitar, Saunders sang two songs about displacement and femicide. They were really moving. Saunders then spoke about truth in a fascinating way - beginning by listing all the depressing topics in our news feeds - war, genocide, rising costs, homelessness, domestic violence, poorly behaved leaders - and how putting the phone down and getting outside is the tonic. She spoke of connecting with country and with ourselves. She then delivered a wonderful poem/story in both her language and the 'colonial tongue' which was so moving. I had not known of her beforehand, but definitely want to check out her collections of poetry.

Michael Pedersen

Scottish author Michael Pedersen then spoke his truth about friendship. He was delightfully witty, and with his thick Scottish accent I am sure only a handful of us understood him fully. He spoke of the sudden loss of his friend Scott and how this has made him double down on friendship. He spoke of the differences between male and female friendships, and how lonely life can be without friends. It was a timely reminder of the need to keep in touch with loved ones and not take friends for granted.

Robbie Arnott

Next up was Tasmanian author Robbie Arnott. He spoke the truth about colonial Tasmanian history, the devastation faced by First Nations people and the damage done by British soldiers. He contrasted the story children have been taught in schools with the facts about the frontier wars.  In among this history lesson, he shared some other truths - like about his sister's ex-boyfriend 'Terrible Nathan', taking a European woman on a date to a cinema in Hobart, and how to correctly pronounce Launceston. I loved his quip about how he promised to share truths, but did not promise they would all be interesting!  

Lily King

American author Lily King spoke about how she lives in a land where truth is hard to find. She spoke of the devastating impact of the current administration and how people live in constant fear. The corruption, divisiveness and open hostility is unbearable. King spoke about the impact of this on her writing and how she believes that authors need to be the truth tellers. Along the way she spoke about her recent best-seller - the brilliant Heart the Lover - and how she had previously attempted to write a political thriller. King's truth was heartfelt and a reminder of how we must preserve our democracy and protect it against divisive political forces. 

Nikita Gill

Finally, Irish-Indian poet and playwright Nikita Gill took the stage and spoke her truth. What resonated for me from Gill's session was a conversation she had with her grandfather before he died, where he asked her what her legacy would be. She attempted to answer and he stopped her, saying she should 'let things percolate' before rushing to answer. Wise advice.  I am interested in checking out her verse novel Hekate. 

I didn't know what to expect from this session, but I am so glad I went. It was joyous, uplifting evening full of interesting ideas. I cannot wait to spend the next few days immersed in this world of thought-provoking, creative minds.

Kirli Saunders, Tania Brown, Nikita Gill, Lily King,
Michael Pedersen, Robbie Arnott, Anne Mossop (SWF Artistic Director)

My SWF2026 Experience

Read more about my time at SWF2026 here:

• Early Sessions - Lorena Allam, Robbie Arnott, Avani Dias, Lyse Doucet, Anton Enus, Nikita Gill, Lily King, Kate McClymont, Michael Pedersen, and Patrick Radden Keefe.
• Day One - Robbie Arnott, Nick Bryant, Barrie Cassidy, Rosalind Dixon, AC Grayling, Tayari Jones, Yann Martel, Amy Remeikis, Niki Savva, David Szalay, Tasma Walton
• Day Two - Michael Mohammed Ahmed, Matt Alt, Jacinda Ardern, Rebecca Armitage, Susan Choi, Bora Chung, Roddy Doyle, Mariana Enriquez, Kate Evans, Mick Herron, Yann Martel, Charlotte McConaghy, Suzie Miller, David Szalay, and Charlotte Wood.
• Day Three - Randa Abdel-Fattah, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Roddy Doyle, Kate Evans, Jan Fran, Lev Grossman, RF Kuang, Antoinette Lattouf, Dervla McTiernan, Garth Nix, Hayley Scrivenor.
• Day Four - Michael Bennett, Tony Birch, Troy Bramston, Shankar Chandran, SA Crosby, Chris Hammer, Mick Herron, Fran Kelly, Sisonke Msimang, Ben Quilty, Amy Remeikis, Hayley Scrivenor, Amy Thunig-McGregor, Jack Toohey, Michael Williams.

Off the Tracks

Photo by Studio Levy

On 22 October 1895 the Granville-Paris Express train crashed through the station wall at the Gare Montparnasse, plummeting on to the street below. The train was running late so the driver was speeding, and the air brake failed. Miraculously all 131 passengers on board survived, but a woman on the street was killed when the building collapsed on her. An inquest after the crash found the driver and a guard at fault, issuing fines and suspended jail sentences. The crash was captured in famous photographs which showed the wreckage moments after the incident.  This photograph inspired award winning author Emma Donoghue's historic novel The Paris Express (2025).

The story begins in Granville as the crew readies the Engine 721 for departure and the passengers prepare to board. We are introduced to the various people about to take this fateful journey. The passengers are split into first, second and third class carriages giving insight into the social divisions. Among the passengers is Mado, an angry young revolutionary who wants to make her mark by committing an act to further her cause. There is an elderly Russian woman, an American painter, a secretary who wants to make films, an Irish playwright, a pregnant woman and many others. We also meet the guards and the drivers who toil to ensure the train runs on time. As the journey progresses we learn more about each of these characters through their interactions with one another.

At first I found this story quite slow and difficult to engage with. There were too many characters  - about a dozen storylines - which were initially hard to keep track of. At one point I contemplated getting off this train. However, as the journey gained momentum I found myself drawn in and connecting with the story. While I knew the train would crash, it was a nail biting finish. 

Donoghue's writing is beautifully evocative. She has structured the novel to resemble the train timetable and his filled the story with information from the period, showing her comprehensive research skills. In the afterword she provides information about the real passengers she has fictionalised and the other historic figures she has imagined on the journey. This made me appreciate Donoghue's work even more. While I cannot say I loved this book, I certainly admired the effort and found the second half of it quite gripping.

Carols Shields Prize Winner 2026

On 2 June 2026 the winner of the 2026 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction was announced. From the five shortlisted novels vying for this prize, the winner is Julia Elliott for Hellions 

Hellions is a collection of short stories which feature a nun working on a mystic manuscript, a child with a pet alligator, a girl with unexpected power, a group of children with supernatural talents and much more. 

The jury' citation is as follows:

"This eerie, eclectic, genre-leaping collection takes no half-measures; every sentence of Hellions crackles or crawls. Here, human folly moves against a backdrop of horror and magic. There’s folklore in these stories, and Southern gothic horror, and surrealism, and fantasy, and, at their center, a thread of uneasy, bodily realism. The work evokes writers like Angela Carter, Dorothy Allison, Gloria Naylor, and Kelly Link. But for all its wildness, there is tremendous control; Elliott is a gifted and thrilling write"

Julia Elliot is an American author who teaches at the University of South Carolina. She is the author of another collection of short stories The Wilds (2014), and the novel The New and Improved Romie Futch (2015).

I thought that either Sonja Walger (Lion) or Megha Majumdar (A Guardian and a Thief) might win this prize, and had hoped that Lee Lai would win for Cannon, after having won the 2026 Stella Prize.

The winner receives $150,000 USD while the four shortlisted finalists receive $12,500 each. 

Revisiting Homer's Odyssey

Back in the 1990s I became slightly obsessed with ancient Greek literature and purchased beautifully bound copies of The Odyssey and The Iliad translated by Robert Fagles. I read these epic poems with their tales of triumph and tragedy in war. Both works have been foundational to my interest in art and drama, and have enhanced my reading of modern literature. 

More recently I have been interested in feminist retellings of these ancient tales, with authors centring women's voices that were sidelined in the original. From Madeline Miller's Circe (2018) and Song of Achilles (2011), to Pat Baker's Women of Troy trilogy (2018-2024), alongside works by Jennifer Saint, Natalie Haynes, Costanza Casati Margaret Atwood and countless others, these works have reignited my interest in the stories. 

With Christopher Nolan's epic film of The Odyssey due for release in July 2026, I thought it might be worth reacquainting myself with the original. For this re-read, I chose the 2017 version translated by Emily Wilson, to read alongside the audiobook performed by Claire Danes.

The story is well known. Odysseus, King of Ithaca, has been gone for over a decade off to fight in the Trojan War. Back home, his wife Penelope is hounded by suitors and her son Telemachus is frustrated by not knowing what has become of his beloved father. The Goddess Athena encourages Telemachus to leave Ithaca in search of information about his father. He travels to meet with Nestor and then Menelaus, who share information about Odysseus voyage home. 

As Odysseus and his crew sailed home from Troy, he faced many perils. His craft was destroyed in a storm sent by Poseidon, he battled a cyclops, he became enthralled by Circe, his sailors were lured by the Sirens, he then had to battle the monster Scylla, before being captured by the nymph Calypso. When he eventually makes it back home, he performs a series of tests to prove his identity and has to vanquish the suitors who have come to take his place. 

As I read the Wilson translation I occasionally got out my Fagles translation to compare the two versions. While I enjoyed the Fagles when I initially read it, my sense is that the Wilson translation is more accessible for modern readers. 

This is such a great story and I am so pleased to have re-read it. I still have a stack of retellings to enjoy and re-reading Homer will make them more meaningful. I am also keen to re-read The Iliad to refresh my memory. 

The Quiet Life

One of the novels I was most looking forward to this year was Tana French's The Keeper (2026), the final instalment in her Cal Hooper trilogy. Like The Searcher (2020) and The Hunter (2024), The Keeper is a slow-burning crime thriller. 

Retired Chicago police detective Cal Hooper is living a quiet life in Ardnakelty, Ireland. His spends his time fixing up his ramshackle home, sitting by the fire with his fiancé Lena Dunne, and woodworking with teenage Trey Reddy. Trey is growing up and finding her way in the world, while Cal and Lena are navigating shifts in their relationship. Other than occasional gatherings at the local pub with his neighbours, or trips to the local shops, Cal keeps to himself. When a local girl, Rachel Holohan, goes missing and is found dead, the community is divided. Did she take her own life, was it an accident, or was she killed? Everyone in the townland has a view on this, and many think it has something to do with the Moynihans, a powerful family that has been buying up land in the area to build a factory. Rumours abound, and while Cal wants to stay out of it, he cannot as the gossip now includes Lena and him.

French has captured the fictional community so vividly, with its multi-generational, layered history, that it is easy to see how rumours are traded as currency. Placing an outsider like Cal into this town helps to explain the intricacies of this community, and how they double-down to protect their own. 

 

I loved this trilogy. I often read fast-paced, page turning crime thrillers, but appreciated Tana French's skill as a writer that she was able to make a gripping thriller by slowing down the pace.  I strongly recommend reading the series in order. While I am sad this trilogy is over, I am wholly satisfied and delighted to know French's Dublin Murder Squad series is waiting for me!

Orwell Prize Finalists 2026

The Orwell Foundation, named for writer George Orwell, presents prizes each year to celebrate political writing. There are various categories, but the ones I am most interested in are the prizes for political writing and political fiction.  Previous winners have included:

• Patrick Radden Keefe - Say Nothing (2019 Political Writing Book Prize)
• Peter Apps - Show Me The Bodies - How We Let Grenfell Happen (2023 Political Writing Book Prize)
• Hisham Matar - My Friends (2024 Political Fiction Book Prize)
• Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These (2022 Political Fiction Book Prize)
• Colson Whitehead - The Nickel Boys (2020 Political Fiction Book Prize)

This year's finalists are:

2026 Political Writing Book Prize Finalists

• Karen Bartlett - The Escape From Kabul
• Omer Bartov - Israel: What Went Wrong?
• Sam Dalrymple - Shattered Lands
• Nilo Tabrizy & Fatemeh Jamalpour - For the Sun After Long Nights
• Andrey Kurkov - Three Years on Fire
• Yi-Ling Liu - The Wall Dancers
• Nicolas Niarchos - The Elements of Power
• Antonia Senior - Stalin's Apostles

2026 Political Fiction Book Prize Finalists

• Tahmima Anam - Uprising
• Susan Choi - Flashlight
• I.O. Echeruo - The Comfort of Distant Stars
• Ben Lerner - Transcription
• Daniyal Mueenuddin - This is Where the Serpent Lives
• Liadan Ní Chuinn - Every One Still Here
• Douglas Stuart - John of John
• Stephanie Sy-Quia - A Private Man

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 25 June 2026 - George Orwell's birthday.

Poirot's Quest

The May selection for the Read Christie 2026 Challenge, 'Best Short Story Collection', is another Agatha Christie book I had never heard of - The Labours of Hercules (1947), the collection of tales featuring Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. 

Poirot is on the verge of retirement. He meets Dr Burton, who jibes Hercule about his name and how he is nothing like his namesake, the Greek hero Hercules. Poirot claims he is unaware of this legend. After Burton departs, Poirot asks his secretary, Miss Lemon, to do some research into Hercules and he learns about the hero's Twelve Labours in which he was tasked to perform terrific feats such as slaying or capturing beasts, obtaining rare items or stealing. Poirot decides his final cases before retirement will align with these Labours.

His first case is the Nemean Lion, which Hercules had to slay despite the creature's impenetrable golden fur. In Poriot's adventure the lion is a yappy Pekinese dog named Shan-Tung that was kidnapped from a local park. Poirot soon discovers other dogs have been ransomed in a similar way and works to determine who is stealing the dogs and why. There is a twist in the tale as Poirot realises something larger is afoot. 

The stories continue with Poirot investigating: gossip undermining a local doctor (the Lyrnean Hydra); the disappearance of a maid (the Arcadian Deer); a gangster in the Swiss Alps (the Erymanthian Boar); a political scandal (the Augean Stables); blackmail (the Stymphalean Birds); a broken engagement (the Cretan Bull); drug addiction (the Horses of Diomedes); an art theft (the Girls of Hyppolita); a cult (the Flock of Geryon); an antique heist (the Apples of the Hesperides); and a drug ring (the Capture of the Cerebus).  

These are light-hearted tales which truncate the usual Christie style into short stories of the detective at work. While the stories are uneven in quality, the overall effect is very clever. Fans of Poirot will appreciate his familiar mannerisms and humour, and the unusual places he finds himself (like the London Tube). It is also great to see other characters - Chief Inspector Japp, Countess Rossakoff - make an appearance. For the most part, I really enjoyed this collection of stories. It is a good option for someone looking for a quick read. 

My reviews of other Christie novels are available on this blog: 

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)

Murder on the Links (1923)

Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

The Body in the Library (1942)

Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952) 

A Caribbean Mystery (1964) 

Dublin Literary Award Winner 2026

The Dublin Literary Award winner has been announced. From the 69 titles nominated in November 2025, to the longlist of 20 titles released in February 2026, a the shortlist of six books announced in April, the judges have now determined a winner. 

The winner of the 100,000 Euro prize is Ali Smith for Gliff.

Ali Smith is a multi-award winning Scottish author, best known for her Seasonal Quartet and Women's Prize winning How to Be Both. Her dystopian novel Gliff is a dystopian novel set in a world of high surveillance and environmental degradation. Two siblings flee an authoritarian state, escaping on a stolen horse named Gliff. 

In announcing the winner, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Ray McAdam said:

“Gliff is a remarkable and deeply powerful work from author Ali Smith. Through the eyes of two young protagonists navigating an increasingly authoritarian society, we are reminded that courage is not always loud, but it is always consequential. Their resilience, their humanity, and their refusal to surrender hope speak to something timeless within us all. At a moment when democracy across the world can too often feel fragile, this novel is a powerful reminder that freedom, dignity and democratic values should never be taken for granted.”

Congratulations Ali Smith!

Australian Book Industry Award Winners 2026

The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) were announced on Thursday 21 May 2026. These awards recognise books published in the preceding year. 

The Winners are:

• ABIA Book of the Year - Once I was a Giant by Zeno Sworder 
  
• 
  Audiobook of the Year - Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth; narrated by Hannah Fredericksen and Jenny Seedsman
• Biography Book of the Year - Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
• The John Marsden Book of the Year for Older Children (ages 13+) - Wandering Wild by Lynette Noni
• Book of the Year for Younger Children (ages 7–12) - Caution! This Book Contains Deadly Reptiles by Corey Tutt, illustrated by Ben Williams
• Children's Picture Book of the Year (ages 0–6) - Once I was a Giant by Zeno Sworder 
• General Fiction Book of the Year - Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth 
• General Non-Fiction Book of the Year - The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein 
• 
  Illustrated Book of the Year - The Art of Kaylene Whiskey: Do you believe in love? by Kaylene Whiskey and Natalie King 
• International Book of the Year - Heart the Lover by Lily King
• Literary Fiction Book of the Year - Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy 
• Small Publishers' Adult Book of the Year - The Rot by Evelyn Araluen 
• Small Publishers' Children's Book of the Year - Sundays Under the Lemon Tree by Julia Busuttil Nishimura, illustrated by Myo Yim 
• Social Impact Book of the Year - A Piece of Red Cloth by Leonie Norrington, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga and Djawundil Maymuru 
• The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year - Melaleuca by Angie Faye Martin

This is a great list of titles. I look forward to reading Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks and Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth, which I may access as an audiobook given it has won for this award.

International Booker Prize Winner 2026

The International Booker Prize 2026 winner has been announced with the prestigious award going to Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi (translated by Lin King). 

In announcing the winner, Natasha Brown, Chair of the judges said: 

‘Can love overcome a power imbalance? Taiwan Travelogue, winner of the International Booker Prize 2026 teases out the nuances of this question against a backdrop of 1930s Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule.

‘Taiwan Travelogue follows Aoyama, a well-meaning author from Japan, and her Taiwanese interpreter, Chizuru, on a government-sponsored tour of Taiwan. From their first meeting, sparks fly between the two women. The power dynamics inherent to their burgeoning relationship, however, prove difficult to navigate. Chizuru is a cipher: enchanting, yet unknowable. She resists all of Aoyama’s efforts to pierce her carefully-constructed mask of professionalism.

‘This book doesn’t shy away from the complexities (both real and fictional) of its journey into the English language. Instead, it uses the hallmarks of a more traditional text – introductions, footnotes, afterwords – to wrap an intriguing metafictional layer around its core love story. Lin King’s deft translation perfectly conveys the nuances of the novel’s narrative voices.

‘Taiwan Travelogue pulls off an incredible double feat: it succeeds as both a romance and an incisive postcolonial novel. As judges, we’ve enjoyed rich discussions about the many layers of this book. It’s a captivating, slyly sophisticated novel.’

The prize awards £25,000 to the author and £25,000 to the translator, in recognition of the essential work of translators in bringing fiction to a wider audience. Congratulations to Yang Shuang-zi and Lin King!

Miles Franklin Award Longlist 2026

The Miles Franklin Award Longlist was announced this week. Arguably Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the winner receives $60,000.

The Longlist of ten novels is as follows:

• Randa Abdel-Fattah - Discipline
• Dominic Amerena - I Want Everything 
• Lyn Dickens - Salt Upon the Water
• Toni Jordan - Tenderfoot
• Steve MinOn - First Name Second Name
• Konrad Muller - My Heart at Evening
• Omar Musa - Fierceland
• Josephine Rowe - Little World
• Madeleine Watts - Elegy, Southwest
• Sean Wilson - You Must Remember This

The judges said of this Longlist:

 “Destabilised histories, faltering memories and chequered geographies meet in the pages of the 2026 Miles Franklin longlist. From Far North Queensland to Tasmania and all the way to remote Western Australia, these novels remind us of the vastness of this continent, the many times and places that Australian stories inhabit, and the global networks in which ‘Australian life’ is invariably embedded. This year’s longlist is haunted by ancestral inheritances, the human capacity for self-deception, and the ways we make space for grief. These novels hold up mirrors to little worlds and large ones too.”

I am excited to see Randa Abdel-Fattah on this list for her novel Discipline. The Palestinian-Australian writer has been the subject of much controversy, with political interference leading to her being cancelled from various events, and many of her words taken out of context.  I have not read her book (and don't know that I will) but I believe it has been wrong to silence her. I am glad the Miles Franklin Award has not succumbed to pressure. I am looking forward to hearing her speak this week at the Sydney Writers' Festival and making my own assessment.

The shortlist will be named in June, with the winner announced in August 2026

And another thing.... I also have to say that the Miles Franklin Award has a crap website. The Award is sponsored by Perpetual, but surely it could have its own site and not be buried among pages about wealth management. 

The Guardian's 100 Best Novels

You know I love a list! In May 2026 The Guardian published a list of the 100 Best Novels of all time. They asked 172 authors, critics and academics about their top 10 novels published in English, and to rank the choices by preference. To this they applied a weighting scale to come up with the 100 best. 

Here is the Guardian's 100 Best Novels. I have marked in Bold books I have read (45 titles), and included a link for any reviews on my blog.

• 
• 100 My Antonia by Willa Cather
• 99 The Go-Between by LP Hartley
• 98 The Road by Cormac McCarthy 
  
• 97 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• 96 Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
• 95 The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
• 94 The Known World by Edward P Jones
• 93 Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
• 92 Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
• 91 Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
• 90 Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf 
• 89 The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
• 88 Ragtime by EL Doctorow
• 
  87 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
• 86 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
• 85 The Vegetarian by Han Kang
• 84 The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• 83 A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• 82 The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
• 81 Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
• 80 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• 79 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
• 78 A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul
• 77 The Rainbow by DH Lawrence
• 76 Dracula by Bram Stoker
• 75 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• 74 Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
• 73 Austerlitz by WG Sebald
• 
  72 Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
• 71 Kindred by Octavia E Butler
• 70 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
• 69 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
• 68 Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• 67 The Man Without Qualities by Rubert Musil
• 66 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• 65 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• 64 The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
• 63 White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• 62 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• 61 The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald
• 60 Howards End by EM Forster
• 59 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• 58 Disgrace by JM Coetzee
• 57 The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• 56 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• 55 The Waves by Virginia Woolf
• 54 Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• 53 The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
• 
  52 The Golden Bowl by Henry James
• 51 My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferret
• 50 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• 49 A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
• 48 The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• 47 Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
• 46 The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
• 45 The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
• 44 Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
• 43 Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
• 42 The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
• 41 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
  
• 40 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• 39 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• 38 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
• 37 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• 36 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• 35 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• 34 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• 33 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• 32 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• 31 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
• 
  30 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• 29 Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
• 28 The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• 27 The Trial by Franz Kafka
• 26 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• 25 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• 24 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• 23 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
• 22 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• 21 The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
• 20 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• 
  19 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
• 18 Persuasion by Jane Austen
• 17 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• 16 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
• 15 Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• 14 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 
• 13 Emma by Jane Austen 
• 12 Bleak House by Charles Dickens
  
• 11 The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
• 10 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• 9 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  
• 8 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• 7 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• 6 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• 5 In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
• 4 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
• 3 Ulysses by James Joyce
• 2 Beloved by Toni Morrison
• 1 Middlemarch by George Eliot

Thrilled that Middlemarch made the number one slot. I love that novel and am overdue for a re-read. I would have added Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth to this list - it is brilliant but often overlooked in favour of The Age of Innocence. Many of these books which I have not read yet are on my Fifty/Five list, which I have barely made a dent in, so better get reading! 

Among the 172 contributors were some of my favourite writers - Ian Rankin, Anne Enright, Colm Toibin, Bernardine Evaristo, Ian McEwan, Jennifer Egan, Maggie O'Farrell, Roxane Gay, Sarah Waters and many more. It was fun to see which books they chose as well.

Gilded Underworld

Journalist Patrick Radden Keefe is coming to Australia for the Sydney Writers' Festival to talk about his latest book, London Falling (2026). I knew of Radden Keefe from Say Nothing (2018), his landmark book about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. While I have not yet read that, I did see the excellent television dramatisation. In preparation for hearing him speak at the festival, I decided to read London Falling, and was instantly captivated by this gripping true crime story. 

In November 2019, 19 year-old Zac Brettler died falling from the fifth floor balcony of a luxury apartment, Riverwalk, into the Thames. A surveillance camera at the MI-6 headquarters on the opposite bank of the river captured the fall. Did he jump because he was suicidal, or because he needed to flee whoever was in the building? Did he think he could jump and safely land in the river?

The apartment was owned by a known drug trafficker and gangster Verinder Sharma. Also present that night was Akbar Shamji, a crypto trader. How did Zac Brettler, a teenager from a middle class family in Maida Vale, end up with these men? 

As Zac's parents seek answers, they learn that their son was living a double life. Posing as Zac Ismailov, the son of a dead Russian oligarch, Zac had made his way into the seedy underbelly of London's gangland, in pursuit of a lifestyle of riches. They are at pains to understand how their beautiful son drifted away from them and what they might have been able to do to prevent this tragedy. 

Radden Keefe initially wrote about this case in an article published in The New Yorker, but has expanded the story into a deeply researched work of narrative non-fiction. In doing so, he fills in the details of how London transformed from an old-world pinstriped-suit world of traditional banking to a thriving modern financial hub. Readers also learn about the exodus from Uganda under Idi Amin, the mobility of Russian oligarchs and so much more.

London Falling reads like a page-turning thriller.  Radden Keefe uses his journalism skills to uncover the various layers of the mystery surrounding Zac's death. But it is also a story of a grieving family who feel that Scotland Yard has not taken this case seriously.

I highly recommend the audiobook version read by the author. His voice infuses the story with empathy and humour. Like the best true crime podcasts, the audiobook is absolutely captivating.

I look forward to seeing Patrick Radden Keefe next week at the Sydney Writers' Festival and want to explore his back catalogue like Say Nothing, The Snakehead and Empire of Pain.

Stella Prize Winner 2026

The winner of the Stella Prize has been announced. Author Lee Lai won for her graphic novel Cannon.  This is the first time a graphic novel has won this award. 

Lai was previously shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2022 for Stone Fruit. With Cannon, she has achieved an even higher profile, as this work has been recognised on many award and 'best book' lists. 

The story of Cannon focuses on a young woman, Lucy, who is trying to find her way in the world, muddling through life. The mendacity of daily life is in monochrome, but becomes colourful when emotions flare. On the edge of a nervous breakdown, Lucy tries hard not to snap! Her best friend Trish knows her better than anyone else, but it is unclear whether they have enough in common to go the distance. 

The judges said “Lai’s elegant artistry evokes horror and poignancy, shock and delight, and Cannon is an incontestable reminder that the very best graphic novels can do what prose alone cannot.”

Lee Lai is a non-binary author who currently resides in Canada. She receives a trophy and $60,000 as the winner.

A Fine Vintage

Australian author Heather Rose fascinates me. Each novel is so different, as she writes across genres - literary fiction, crime thriller, political satire, fable. Her latest novel, A Great Act of Love (2025) is a work of historical fiction.

The story centres around Caroline Colbert, the daughter of Hannah and Jacques-Louis Colbert, who was raised in Britain. Pere Colbert was an aristocrat forced to flee France during the Revolution. Upon arrival in Scotland, he works in an apothecary. Here, young Caroline learns about tinctures and elixirs to cure all sorts of ailments. The family later moves to London and establishes their own store. When her mother passes and her father suffers a major blow, Caroline's aunt, Tante Henriette, teaches her to become a fingersmith, stealing small valuables and fencing them to survive. But this is no way to live, and Caroline must find her way in the world.

Caroline's father is arrested and sentenced for transportation to Norfolk Island. Caroline is doubtful she will see her father again, but is determined to be reunited. There is nothing left for her in England, so she reinvents herself as Mrs Caroline Douglas, a young widow, and pays for passage to Van Diemen's Land. 

Upon arrival in the colony in 1839, Caroline secures a small patch of land and works to revive the vineyard on the property. She seeks to remain discreet, outside of the Hobart gossip circles. She keeps her investments hidden and begins to work the land. Caroline has many secrets in this new place, and fears exposure. But she soon finds friends and confidants who will assist her in her great act of love. 

I really enjoyed this novel. The characters are fascinating and I was full of admiration for Caroline - she is smart, determined and kind. She brings Quill, Bessie, and Cornelius into her circle, becoming a family with those who have lost theirs. 

Heather Rose has crafted this tale of redemption in an interesting manner. The main thread of the story is about Caroline establishing herself in this harsh new world. This is interspersed with chapters which fill in the backstory of the various characters. 

Rose does not shy away from the harshness and cruelty of the colony:  dispossession and murder of the First Nations people; enslavement and brutality to the convicts; stripping the land and destroying the habitat of native animals. Yet this is not so off-putting as to distract from the tale. The novel is rich with historical detail, which transports the reader into this engrossing story.

Later this month I will be attending a session with Heather Rose at the Sydney Writers' Festival where she will talk about this novel. I understand the idea came to her from a loose strand of her own family history so I am keen to hear more about how she wrote this novel.

My reviews of other novels by Heather Rose are available on this blog:

• The Museum of Modern Love (2016) 
• Bruny (2019)

Pulitzer Prize Winners 2026

The 2026 Pulitzer Prize Winners have been announced with awards for Journalism and Books, Drama and Music. Let's take a look at the book award winners and finalists.

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 

Daniel Kraus was awarded the Pulitzer for his novel Angel Down - a story about World War I, told in a single sentence. Finalists were Katie Kitamura (Audition), and Torrey Peters (Stag Dance).

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Bess Wohl has won for Liberation, a play about at the legacy of feminist groups from the 1970s. r Finalists were Nazareth Hassan for Bowl EP and Talene Monahon for Meet the Cartesians.

The Pulitzer Prize for History

This year's award goes to Jill Lepore for her work We the People: A History of the US Constitution - I am keen to read this book. Finalists were Scott Anderson for King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution, and Bench Ansfield for Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and The Remaking of the American City.  

The Pulitzer Prize for Biography

Amanda Vail was recognised for her biography of the Schuyler Sisters in  Pride and Pleasure: The Shuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution. Finalists were Lance Richardson for True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen and James McWilliams for The Life and Poetry of Frank Stanford.   

The Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography

Yiyun Li won for Things in Nature Merely Grow - an account of the suicides of her sons. Finalists were Anelise Chen for Calm Down: A Metamorphosis, Sarah Chihaya for Bibliophobia: A Memoir and Hala Alyan for I'll Tell You When I am Home: A Memoir.

The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Juliana Spahr was recognised for her collection of poetry Ars Poeticas. Finalists were I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always by Douglas Kearney and The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems by Patricia Smith.

The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

Brian Goldstone won for There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.  Finalists were A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland and Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church by Kevin Sack.

 Of all these Pulitzer Prize winning books, the one I am most interested in is the work by Jill Lepore on the history of the US Constitution.