The Miles Franklin Award

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Peter Bruce (Independent Scholar - Australia)

Ed. by Paul Sharrad, University of Wollongong
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 9.1.1: Australian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Susan Kossew (Monash University)

Domains

Organisations and institutions (arts& culture)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1957

Places

Australia (Location)

The Miles Franklin Award is Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, both for its longevity and its impact on cultural debate. If it is of the nature of literature prizes to be controversial, then the Miles Franklin is up with the best of international awards.

The Miles Franklin began in 1957 with a completely surprising bequest by the writer (Stella Maria) Miles Franklin, best known for the 1901 coming-of-age novel My Brilliant Career. It was one of the richest awards of its kind in the world in its first years, providing then the remarkable sum of ₤500 to a work “of the highest literary merit and which must present Australian Life in any of its phases”¹. This formula was later modified to ” a …

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1466 words

Citation: Bruce, Peter. "The Miles Franklin Award". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 July 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1674, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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The Miles Franklin Award

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