Alexis Wright has won the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award for her novel, Praiseworthy. The book, published by small press publisher Giramondo, was selected from 104 submissions. Wright has now joined a select group of two-time winners, which includes Michelle de Kretser, Kim Scott, Thomas Keneally and Patrick White. The author first won the award back in 2007 for her novel, Carpentaria.
Upon receipt of the $60,000 prize, Wright said, ‘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.’
The 2024 judging panel comprised Mitchell Librarian of the State Library of NSW and Chair, Richard Neville; literary scholar, Associate Professor Jumana Bayeh; literary scholar and translator, Dr Mridula Nath Chakraborty; book critic, Dr James Ley; and author and literary scholar, Professor Hsu-Ming Teo.
SECRET CODE: WRIGHT (Enter Prize Here)
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.
‘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.’
Read: Miles Franklin shortlist 2024
Praiseworthy has already won a slew of awards, including the Stella Prize, the James Tait Black Prize in Fiction and ALS Gold Medal 2024.
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.
