Zombies, ghosts, and debuts: The Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist revealed

The 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist offers a vibrant and diverse collection of Australian literature, spanning supernatural themes, historical explorations, and contemporary political commentary. This year's selection includes slender novellas and novels, with Josephine Rowe's 'Little World' and Sean Wilson's 'You Must Remember This' noted for their concise page counts.

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This is a very fun and readable shortlist. The quality is very high and it's nice to have a list where there aren't a lot of 'worthy' books, books that make you feel like you're doing a lot of work while you're reading them. They're very enjoyable.

Among the six finalists are two debut novels: 'My Heart at Evening' by Konrad Muller and 'First Name Second Name' by Steve MinOn. Both authors bring unique backgrounds, with Muller being a diplomat-turned-winemaker and MinOn a former advertising copywriter and restaurateur. The shortlist also features Randa Abdel-Fattah's 'Discipline,' a work tackling pressing political issues, which gained attention after its author's appearance at Adelaide Writers' Week was canceled, leading to the event's axing.

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I couldn't disagree more! I felt these books did ask for work from readers. That's what makes them special. The approaches to queer characterisation in My Heart at Evening, Fierceland, Little World and First Name Second Name are fascinating. A number of books in this year's shortlist appear straightforward but they're incredibly polyvocal; they say so many things at once. They're really complex.

Literary critics and writers, including Claire Nichols, Sarah L'Estrange, Kate Evans, and Declan Fry, have shared their insights on the shortlist. While some, like Nichols, find the list "fun and readable" with "worthy" books that are enjoyable, others, such as Fry, argue that the complexity and "polyvocal" nature of the works demand engagement from the reader. The shared preoccupations with queerness, nature, and the macabre, alongside fresh takes on Australian history, mark this year's selection as particularly compelling.

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I was pleasantly surprised going into the list. Konrad Muller's My Heart at Evening is the first book published by micro press Evercreech Editions, I didn't know about this title and then opened this beautifully designed book and discovered another world. It's got the pathos and gothic noir that we associate with Tasmanian colonial fiction but there's also a Dickensian element as well. It had lots of surprises. I think each of the books have something to surprise.

The Miles Franklin Literary Award, a prestigious prize in Australian literature, will announce its 2026 winner on August 5. Last year, Siang Lu won the $60,000 prize for his novel 'Ghost Stories.'

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I was really taken by the way that so many of the titles are dealing with the past in such interesting and playful ways, offering a fresh take on historical fiction.