The Trust Company

Celebrating the best in Australian literature

The Miles Franklin Literary Award, our first and most prestigious literary award, was established in 1954 with a bequest from the author Miles Franklin. She was concerned to see Australian literature flourish and knew first hand the struggles most authors have in Australia.

The Miles Franklin Literary Award celebrates Australian character and creativity and nurtures the continuing life of literature about Australia. It is awarded for the novel of the year which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases.

Since it was first awarded in 1957 to Patrick White for his novel Voss, the award has encouraged authors and delivered an immense contribution to the richness of Australian cultural life.

The Miles Franklin Literary Award 2010

Congratulations to Peter Temple who was awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Award for 2010. Announced at an award dinner in Sydney on 22 June 2010, Peter Temple was presented this year's prize of $42,000 for his novel Truth.

Temple's winning novel is the much anticipated sequel to The Broken Shore and comprehends murder, corruption, family, friends, honour, honesty, deceit, love, betrayal - and truth. A stunning story about contemporary Australian life, Truth is written with great moral sophistication.

On behalf of the judging panel, Morag Fraser commented "It was a controversial and challenging shortlist, accomplished and diverse in many ways that made the judges' task very difficult. Each  novel offered quite a distinct and compelling fictional journey".  

The Trust Company congratulates Peter Temple and all of the shortlist authors for making this year's award a great success.

The Shortlist 

On Wednesday 21 April, The Trust Company announced the six authors and their novels selected for the 2010 shortlist.

The 2010 shortlist features some of Australia's most established literary names alongside new and emerging authors, each showcasing Australian character and creativity. 

The judging panel are excited by the diverse range of novels and what this means for Australian literature.

In deciding on a shortlist of six, longer than usual, the judges have acknowledged the quality of the works offered this year, and also their extreme diversity. The six novels chosen cover an extraordinary range. Their sheer quality, what Miles Franklin would have termed their ‘literary merit’, makes pigeonholing them impossible. Notions of genre could not contain them. Ideas about specific audience – is this young adult or adult fiction? – proved irrelevant. And in their exposition of Australian life ‘in any of its phases’, the six shortlisted writers gave the judges an exhilarating sense of just how bewilderingly varied those phases of Australian life could be. It has been a fascinating and challenging year.

The 2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist is:

To read more about the shortlist novels and their authors, judges' formal comments and the reading notes enter here.

The Longlist

On Wednesday 17 March, The Trust Company announced the twelve authors and their novels selected for the 2010 longlist.

Featuring a combination of well-known and emerging authors, the longlist includes three debut novels including The Book of Emmett, Siddon and Figurehead. Previous Miles Franklin Literary Award winners contending in the year’s Award include Alex Miller, Tom Keneally, Peter Carey and David Foster.

The 2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist is:

To read more about the longlist enter here.

50 books were submitted for this year's Award. 

The Judges

Judges for this year's Award include Mr Richard Neville, Ms Morag Fraser AM, Professor Gillian Whitlock, Ms Lesley McKay and Mr Murray Waldren .  

Copyright Agency Limited (CAL)

CAL’s Cultural Fund is a proud supporter of the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Are you eligible?

The prize is awarded for the novel of the year which is of “the highest literary merit and which must present Australian life in any of its phases”.

Novels submitted must have been published in the year of entry of the Award.

How to apply

Applications for the 2010 award have now closed. The 2011 application form will be available in late 2010.

Previous Winners

Previous winners of the Miles Franklin Literary Award include:

• 2009 Tim Winton Breath 
• 2008 Steven Carroll The Time We Have Taken 
• 2007 Alexis Wright Carpentaria
• 2006 Roger McDonald The Ballad of Desmond Kale
• 2005 Andrew McGahan The White Earth
• 2004 Shirley Hazzard The Great Fire
• 2003 Alex Miller Journey to the Stone Country
• 2002 Tim Winton Dirt Music
• 2001 Frank Moorhouse Dark Palace

To read more about past years for this Award please enter here and click through on the novel's cover for the relevant year.

Further information
The Trust Company is the trustee for the Miles Franklin Literary Fund.