Departures: 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist announced

The Trust Company, as Trustee, and the 2012 judges today announced the shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, regarded as Australia's most prestigious literary prize. Announced at the State Library of New South Wales, the 2012 shortlist features five works of fiction and includes a mixture of well-established Australian authors and first time novelists.

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".

For the first time this year the five person judging panel were formally authorised by the Trustee to use their discretion to modernise the interpretation of Australian life beyond geographical boundaries to include mindset, language, history and values.

The 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist is:

Tony Birch Blood University of Queensland Press

Anna Funder All That I Am Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Group Australia)

Gillian Mears Foal's Bread Allen & Unwin

Frank Moorhouse Cold Light Vintage (Random House Australia)

Favel Parrett Past the Shallows Hachette Australia (Hachette imprint)

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.

Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Gillian Whitlock said: "This year we had a big longlist that made the judging panel reflect on the power of historical fiction, extending from the colonial period through to memories of the world wars and their aftermath. We see this reflected in the shortlisted fictions by Anna Funder and Frank Moorhouse.

"We also see more contemporary lives explored with a turn to trauma narratives and childhood, in the shortlisted novels by Tony Birch, Favel Parrett and Gillian Mears. The breadth of the shortlist includes well-known and loved Australian authors and includes the end of one of the great historical trilogies in Cold Light, as well as featuring two wonderful first time novelists. The Miles Franklin prize is now more than ever a national celebration of Australian writing," Ms Whitlock said.

John Atkin, CEO of The Trust Company, commended the five shortlisted authors on their challenging and evocative novels, "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. As part of that role we have been looking at the ambiguity around "Australian life in any of its phases". It has been much cause for debate and there has been a traditionally conservative interpretation of the quote. I wrote to the judges authorising them to use their discretions to modernise the interpretation of "Australianess" beyond geographical boundaries to include mindset, language, history and values, as is in keeping with the current Australian literary landscape."

Each of the shortlisted authors will be awarded $5,000 prize money from Copyright Agency Limited's Cultural Fund, a long-term partner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

The shortlist events at National Library of Australia, Canberra on 29 May, also sponsored by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund include a public meet the author event. The winner will be announced in Brisbane on 20 June 2012 at the State Library of Queensland.