Miles Franklin Award Shortlist

 The Miles Franklin Award Longlist was announced this week. The following six titles are up for Australia’s most prestigious literary prize:

• 
  Brian Castro - Chinese Postman 
• Michelle de Krester - Theory and Practice
• Winnie Dunn - Dirt Poor Islanders
• Julie Janson - Compasion
• Siang Lu - Ghost Cities
• Fiona McFarlane - Highway 13

I was travelling when the Longlist was announced in May so I did not write about it. The Longlist included some brilliant titles that did not make the cut: The Burrow (Melanie Cheng); Politica (Yumna Kassab); The Degenerates (Raedon Richardson); Juice (Tim Winton). I hoped that The Burrow would have made the shortlist as it is a brilliant novel, and had expected previous winner Winton to be on the list.  

If I had to pick a winner, I would put my money on the Michelle de Krester for Theory and Practice as she is on a roll, having just won the Stella Prize. But the title I am most interested in is Highway 13 - a collection of short stories about the impact of a serial killer. All will be revealed when the winner is announced in July.