Departures: 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist announced

The Trust Company, as Trustee of The Franklin Fund today announced the highly anticipated longlist for the 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award, from which the winner of the $50,000 prize will be announced in June. In a bumper year for the Award, 13 novels have been included in the longlist, reflecting the strength and quality of the 61 entries.

Established by writer, Miles Franklin, to support and encourage authors of Australian literature, the Miles Franklin Literary Award is Australia's oldest and most prestigious literary prize. The winner of the award will receive $50,000 for the novel of the year judged to be of the highest literary merit which 'must present Australian life in any of its phases'.

The 13 entries in the 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist include:
Tony Birch, Blood, University of Queensland Press
Steven Carroll, The Spirit of Progress, Fourth Estate (HarperCollins Publishers Australia)
Mark Dapin, Spirit House, Pan Macmillan Australia
Virginia Duigan, The Precipice, Vintage (Random House Australia)
Anna Funder, All That I Am, Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Group (Australia))
Kate Grenville, Sarah Thornhill, The Text Publishing Company
Gail Jones, Five Bells, Vintage (Random House Australia)
Gillian Mears, Foal's Bread, Allen & Unwin
Alex Miller, Autumn Laing, Allen & Unwin
Frank Moorhouse, Cold Light, Vintage (Random House Australia)
Favel Parrett, Past the Shallows, Hachette Australia (Hachette imprint)
Elliot Perlman, The Street Sweeper, Vintage (Random House Australia)
Charlotte Wood, Animal People, Allen & Unwin

Judging the 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award is Richard Neville, State Library of New South Wales Mitchell Librarian, Professor Gillian Whitlock, Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow at the University of Queensland, Murray Waldren, journalist and columnist at The Australian, Anna Low, a Sydney based bookseller and Dr Julianne Schultz AM, founding editor of Griffith REVIEW.

The 2012 shortlist will be announced on 3 May at the State Library of New South Wales with the winner announced at an award event at the State Library of Queensland on 20 June 2012.

John Atkin, CEO of The Trust Company said it had been encouraging to see such a varied collection of books in the longlist and hoped the strength of the list would rouse debate in literary circles.

"The Trust Company is extremely proud to be associated with the Miles Franklin Award and as Trustee we are constantly working to maintain and develop the legacy Miles Franklin entrusted us with for the advancement of Australian literature," Mr Atkin said.

This year The Trust Company will be taking the Miles Franklin Literary Award on the road to Perth for an Oration with last year's winner Kim Scott, and to Canberra for the shortlist events in late May to further promote Australian literature nationally.

"It is especially important in 2012, the Year of Reading, that we continue to safeguard Miles Franklin's legacy to support and further develop Australian literature," Mr Atkin said.

More information on the Miles Franklin Literary Award, applications and deadlines can be found here.