Alexis Wright has won the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award for her novel, Praiseworthy. In winning this year’s award, Alexis joins a distinguished group of two-time winners including Michelle de Kretser, Kim Scott, Thomas Keneally and Patrick White. Alexis won the 2007 award for her novel, Carpentaria.
“I am both amazed and humbled to win the 2024 Miles Franklin Award for Praiseworthy,” said Alexis Wright. “To win a Miles Franklin a second time is monumental. I wanted to make Praiseworthy a big book in more ways than one. I wanted to capture the spirit of our times.”
Established through the will of My Brilliant Career author, Stella Miles Franklin, for the “advancement, improvement and betterment of Australian literature,” the Miles Franklin Literary Award recognises a novel of “the highest literary merit” that presents “Australian life in any of its phases.” Perpetual serves as Trustee for the Award.
“Miles Franklin’s achievements as a novelist ensure she is remembered as one of Australia’s literary greats, and her generosity, foresight and desire to continue redefining and promoting Australian literature through this Award has had an incredibly positive impact on the lives of so many writers over the past 67 years, and Australia’s broader literary community,” said Perpetual’s Managing Partner Community, Social and ESG Investment, Caitriona Fay.
Alexis will receive $60,000 in prize money. Her novel was chosen from a shortlist that included Only Sound Remains by Hossein Asgari (Puncher & Wattmann), Wall by Jen Craig (Puncher & Wattmann), Anam by André Dao (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House), The Bell of the World by Gregory Day (Transit Lounge) and Hospital by Sanya Rushdi (Giramondo Publishing).
When describing this year’s winning novel, the judges said, “Praiseworthy is an astonishing feat of storytelling and sovereign imagination. It is a capacious work in which Alexis Wright takes on the role of creative custodian, singing the songs of unceded lands. She bears witness to the catastrophic transformations wrought by white fantasies, against which Indigenous ingenuity still stands, its connection to Country unbroken,” they said.
“Wright’s literary technique is a superb mash-up of different languages, ancient and modern, and displays an exceptional mastery of craft. The novel is imbued with astonishing emotional range, deploying Wright’s signature humour despite its powerful sense of the tragic. Through its sheer ambition, astringency and audacity, Praiseworthy redraws the map of Australian literature and expands the possibilities of fiction.”
The 2024 judging panel comprises Richard Neville, Mitchell Librarian of the State Library of NSW and Chair; literary scholar, A/Prof Jumana Bayeh; literary scholar and translator, Dr Mridula Nath Chakraborty; book critic, Dr James Ley; and author and literary scholar, Prof Hsu-Ming Teo.
First awarded in 1957, past winners of the Miles Franklin Literary Award have included Patrick White, Randolph Stow, Ruth Park, Thea Astley, Tim Winton, Peter Carey, Anna Funder, Michelle de Kretser, Melissa Lucashenko, Tara June Winch, Amanda Lohrey, Jennifer Down and Shankari Chandran.
For more information about the Miles Franklin Literary Award, visit: www.milesfranklin.com.au for details.
Image: Alexis Wright – photo by Vincent Long