Show caption The shortlist for the Miles Franklin prize 2017, Australia’s richest literary award, will be announced on 18 June. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo Miles Franklin literary award 2017 Miles Franklin award 2017 longlist reveals ‘depth and strength of Australian writing’ Nine authors in line for $60,000 prize, with books covering themes such as assisted suicide, murder, retirement and desire Staff and agencies Tue 2 May 2017 04.40 BST Share on Facebook

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The nine authors in contention for Australia’s richest literary award, the Miles Franklin, have been announced.

The writers in line for the $60,000 cash prize were whittled down from 64 entries and hail from all around the country including New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia, with one Australian author now settled in San Francisco.

The books cover modern stories and themes from assisted suicide (The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam) to murder (An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire) retirement (Extinctions by Josephine Wilson) and desire (Hold by Kirsten Tranter).

The title of one longlisted novel, Their Brilliant Careers by Ryan O’Neill, references the author whose will established the award 60 years ago: Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, who wrote My Brilliant Career.

O’Neill’s book follows the invented biographies of 16 Australian writers.

“This year’s longlist, unusually, is nearly all contemporary and urban,” said the Mitchell Librarian at the State Library of NSW, Richard Neville, on behalf of the judging panel. “The longlist is a reflective one, as novelists grapple with the creation and remembrance of history, the contests of urban relationships, and domestic complexity, trauma and insight from the proximity of mortality.

“The diversity of these voices suggests the depth and strength of Australian writing, and its resistance to easy categorisation. Each of these novels brings a distinct voice to the Australian experience which refuses conventional description.

“Strong narratives drive these stories, which foreground an Australian perspective on questions exploring the making and understanding of identity through the writing of history, the constructions of media, the imminence of death, or the immediacy of family.”

The Australian journalist Murray Waldren, Sydney-based bookseller Lindy Jones, book critic Melinda Harvey and Emeritus Professor Susan Sheridan join Neville on the judging panel.

The shortlisted finalists will be revealed on 18 June, with the winner announced in September. Last year’s Miles Franklin award was won by a very surprised AS Patric “after many, many years of absolute obscurity and oblivion”, for his first published novel Black Rock White City – a triumph for small independent publisher Transit Lounge, which had to plan extra print runs to meet demand.

The 2017 Miles Franklin literary award longlist

Steven Amsterdam: The Easy Way Out (Hachette Australia)

Emily Maguire: An Isolated Incident (Picador Australia/Pan Macmillan Australia)





Mark O’Flynn: The Last Days of Ava Langdon (University of Queensland Press)





Ryan O’Neill: Their Brilliant Careers (Black Inc)

Josephine Wilson: Extinctions (UWA Publishing)





Kirsten Tranter: Hold (HarperCollins Publishers)



Inga Simpson: Where the Trees Were (Hachette Australia)



Philip Salom: Waiting (Puncher & Wattmann)



Josephine Rowe: A Loving, Faithful Animal (University of Queensland Press)

