Miles Franklin Award 2012 Longlist has been announced recently. Since the the first winner, Patrick White, for his book Voss in 1957, the prize has been awarded to novels describing life in suburbia, compulsive gamblers, Australians abroad – but always true to the terms of Miles Franklin’s will: ‘[the] prize shall be awarded for the novel for the year which is of the highest literary merit and which must present Australian life in any of its phases …’. The award also causes confusion and attracts criticism.

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