We've read every book on the 2026 Miles Franklin shortlist. Who will win?
About this episode
The hosts discuss the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist and share their favorite picks from the nominated books.
From hopping zombies to singing forests and a lot of queer characters, we break down the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist and pick our favourites from strong contenders including Randa Abdel-Fattah, Omar Musa and more. The Miles Franklin is Australia's most prestigious literary award. It carries a cash prize of $60,000 and the winning author goes in to the history books alongside previous winners including Thea Astley, Tim Winton, Peter Carey, Melissa Lukashenko and the 2025 winner, Siang Lu (listen to our interview with the author). Claire Nichols and producer Sarah L'Estrange have read through all of the 2026 shortlist and are excited by what's on offer: there's a book that brought down a writers' festival, a Tasmanian colonial detective story, one with walking zombies, one where the forests of Borneo sing, a mysterious child saint in the Kimberley and one where dementia is the inspiration for the story structure. We discuss what we do and don't like about each book and at the end, pick our favourite. Who do you think will win? These are the six books on the shortlist: Discipline by Randa Abdel-Fattah (University of Queensland Press) First Name Second Name by Steve…
People in this episode
Hosts: Claire Nichols, Sarah L'Estrange
Topics covered
- Miles Franklin Literary Award
- book shortlist
- literary analysis
- Australian literature
- author discussions
- book recommendations
Keywords
- Miles Franklin
- literary award
- book discussion
- Australian authors
- 2026 shortlist
- book recommendations
- Claire Nichols
- Sarah L'Estrange
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: University of Queensland Press, Evercreech Editions, Penguin Random House Australia, Black Inc, Affirm Press
Books & works: Discipline, First Name Second Name, My Heart At Evening, Fierceland, Little World, You Must Remember This
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- Omar Musa celebrates his 2026 Miles Franklin win for Fierceland
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