The shortlist of novels in the running for the 2011 Miles Franklin Award has been released:
The list is:
When Colts Ran by Roger McDonald
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
Bereft by Chris Womersley
A total of three novels in a shortlist that normally contains 5 or 6. I'm not sure what to make of this number, nor what to make of the fact that all the authors are male, again. I can't see that anyone is going to be happy with this announcement, aside from the authors and their publishers of course.
Is this indicative of a down-turn in quality of Australian novels? Or something else entirely? There were nine novels on the original longlist. Even that seemed a little "short" for a "long" list.
The list is:
When Colts Ran by Roger McDonald
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
Bereft by Chris Womersley
A total of three novels in a shortlist that normally contains 5 or 6. I'm not sure what to make of this number, nor what to make of the fact that all the authors are male, again. I can't see that anyone is going to be happy with this announcement, aside from the authors and their publishers of course.
Is this indicative of a down-turn in quality of Australian novels? Or something else entirely? There were nine novels on the original longlist. Even that seemed a little "short" for a "long" list.
