‘Recognition is good, but it doesn’t pay the bills’, Gabrielle Wang. Photo: Shutterstock.
This year’s Miles Franklin award-winner has recently been announced, with the winner Shankari Chandran, taking home the pot of gold, worth $60,000, with the other five authors on the short list awarded $5000 each.
‘In the grand scheme of things, I reckon the literary world is better served by spreading out rather than concentrating the wealth. High purses get attention both in the media and from entrants, but they may not serve our community well in the long run.’
Thuy On is the former Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian.
She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025).
Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy
