Boomerang Books Info Bank

The longlist for the 2008 Miles Franklin award has been announced.

The nine novels selected are:

• Landscape of Farewell (Alex Miller,  A&U)
• Love without Hope (Rodney Hall,  Picador)
• Orpheus Lost (Janette Turner Hospital, Fourth Estate)
• Secrets of the Sea (Nicholas Shakespeare, Harvill Secker)
• Sorry (Gail Jones, Vintage)
• The Fern Tattoo (David Brooks, UQP)
• The Memory Room (Christopher Koch, Knopf)
• The Time We Have Taken (Steven Carroll, Fourth Estate)
• The Widow and her Hero (Tom Keneally, Vintage)

Fifty-nine books were submitted for this year’s award.

The shortlist will be announced on Thursday 17 April. The winner, who will receive $42,000, will be announced at a gala dinner on Thursday 19 June.

Judges for this year’s award are Professor Robert Dixon, Professor Morag Fraser AM, Ian Hicks, Lesley McKay and Regina Sutton.The Nelson Meers Foundation continues its patronage of the award for the third consecutive year.

The regional touring program, supported by Copyright Agency Limited and launched last year, continues until the end of 2009 and covers all Australian states and territories. The 2008 regional touring schedule for this year’s shortlist will be announced in April.

This article from Thorpe Bowker's Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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