2008 Miles Franklin Literary Award Longlist

For 2008 a total of 59 books were submitted and yesterday nine novels for the Miles Franklin Literary Award announced (drum roll please) and they are: Landscape of Farewell by Alex Miller (Allen & Unwin); Love without Hope by Rodney Hall (Picador Pan Macmillan Australia); Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital (Fourth Estate HarperCollinsPublishers); Secrets of the Sea by Nicholas Shakespeare (Harvill Secker Random House); Sorry by Gail Jones (Vintage Random House Australia); The Fern Tattoo by David Brooks (University of Queensland Press); The Memory Room by Christopher Koch (Knopf Random House Australia); The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll Fourth Estate (HarperCollinsPublishers); The Widow and her Hero by Tom Keneally (Vintage Random House Australia). The Miles Franklin Literary Award was established in 1954 with a bequest from the author Miles Franklin. It is awarded for the novel of the year which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases. A shortlist will be announced on April 19 and the winner of the $42,000 prize on June 21. Go to the trust website for more details: http://www.trust.com.au/awards/miles_franklin/