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Perth Now
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Writers of colour dominate Miles Franklin shortlist
Five writers of colour have been shortlisted for Australia's most prestigious literary prize. Hong Kong-born Brian Castro, Sri-Lankan-born Michelle de Kretser, Tongan-Australian Winnie Dunn, Burruberongal woman Julie Janson, Malaysian-born Siang Lu and Fiona McFarlane comprise the shortlist for the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award, released on Wednesday. The winner of the $60,000 prize will be announced on July 25 by award trustee Perpetual and the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund. Janson, Lu and debut author Dunn are shortlisted for the first time, joining 2013 and 2018 winner de Kretser, and Castro and McFarlane, who have previously been shortlisted. Judges said the shortlist "celebrates writing that refuses to compromise". "Each of these works vitalises the form of the novel and invents new languages for the Australian experience," they said. Copyright Agency chief executive Josephine Johnston said the shortlist highlighted the extraordinary breadth of Australian storytelling. "From a powerful debut to new works by first-time nominees and acclaimed authors, the shortlist reflects the richness and diversity of voices shaping our literary landscape," she said. Shortlisted authors each receive $5000 from the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund. The Award was established in 1954 by the estate of My Brilliant Career author Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin to celebrate the Australian character and creativity. It supports the betterment of literature by recognising the novel of the highest literary merit each year which presents "Australian life in any of its phases". 2025 MILES FRANKLIN AWARD SHORTLIST: * Chinese Postman by Brian Castro * Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser * Dirt Poor Islanders by Winnie Dunn * Compassion by Julie Janson * Ghost Cities by Siang Lu * Highway 13 by Fiona McFarlane
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I'm so humbled': western Sydney's Winnie Dunn up for $60,000 Miles Franklin literary award for debut novel
Winnie Dunn was just a toddler when her aunt first noticed her fascination with language – mesmerised by the writing on the back of a toilet paper packet. Growing up in one of the most disadvantaged regions of Sydney, hers was a household without books. Three decades on, Dunn has become the first Tongan writer to be published in Australia and the first to be shortlisted for Australia's most prestigious literary prize. Her debut novel, Dirt Poor Islanders, is one of the six books vying for this year's Miles Franklin award. 'I'm so humbled,' Dunn says, of the nomination. 'Just to be next to people like Brian Castro and Julie Janson is really amazing. So I'm really quite thrilled.' Castro's Chinese Postman and Janson's Compassion made it onto the shortlist, alongside Siang Lu's Ghost Cities and Fiona McFarlane's Highway 13. The odds-on favourite, however, appears to be Michelle de Kretser's Theory and Practice, which won the Stella prize last month; last year, Alexis Wright won the Miles Franklin after winning the Stella. Dunn describes Dirt Poor Islanders as a deliberate inversion of Kevin Kwan's bestseller Crazy Rich Asians, and the subsequent film that luxuriated in Asian wealth and excess for a global audience. Instead, Dunn focuses on her childhood stamping ground, Mount Druitt in Sydney's west, with Dirt Poor Islanders following Meadow Reed, a half Tongan, half white girl who is torn between the comforting familiarity of family and tradition, and its mortifying capacity to relegate her to the fringe of her wider community. 'Crazy Rich Asians was really seen as this kind of radical, self-determined book – and I wanted to pay homage to that, but on the flip side,' Dunn said. That flip side includes a frank exploration of class and cultural perception, as it relates to the Tongan diaspora. 'Pasifika people are seen as quite poor, but I wanted to bring this idea that dirt and the earth and the places you come from are actually quite rich in and of themselves,' she said. Even the book's title is defiant in that spirit – embracing, rather than avoiding, an economic reality in which many Pacific Australians live, and the way their lives are stereotyped in the media. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Dunn was 14 when Chris Lilley's Summer Heights High became one of Australia's most popular TV shows. His brownface caricature, Jonah from Tonga, left her feeling humiliated. 'It made me ashamed to be Tongan,' she said. 'I remember going to school and there was this Anglo-Saxon kid wearing a sarong, strumming a ukulele and reciting quotes from Jonah. I felt like I was the butt end of someone's joke.' Seven years later an SBS film crew moved into her neighbourhood and made the controversial documentary Struggle Street, which was decried by many western Sydney residents and some sections of the media as 'poverty porn'. It made Dunn 'feel like I was growing up in the arse end of Sydney … I didn't feel like there was any room for people like me to tell their own stories.' That all changed when Dunn met western Sydney novelist and educator Michael Mohammed Ahmad, and became involved in the local collective he founded, the Sweatshop Literacy Movement. 'It was the first time I really got to see self-determined storytelling,' she says. 'It opened up a whole new world for me in terms of understanding that there was space for stories like mine.' Today, Dunn is Sweatshop's general manager, where she has served as editor on a number of anthologies showcasing writing from culturally and linguistically diverse authors, including Brownface, Sweatshop Women, Strait-Up Islander and Another Australia. Dunn is the first in her family to attend university, and she believes it will be some time before another member achieves this milestone. Books and reading still do not feature significantly in her family's life, but Dirt Poor Islanders does pay homage to the woman bemused by a toddler's fascination with the words on a package of toilet paper 30 years earlier. Her name is also Winnie Dunn. In Tongan culture, there is no word for 'aunt', but the elder Winnie raised the child Winnie as a mother would, and remains her staunchest supporter. Dirt Poor Islanders dedication reads simply: 'To Winnie. The richest gift you ever gave me was your name.' The winner of the Miles Franklin prize will be announced on 24 July.
