George Haddad one of SMH's Australia's Best Young Novelists, Losing Face longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award
A huge congratulations to George Haddad, who has been recognised for two significant literary awards this week.
Longlisted for the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award
Losing Face(May, 2022) has been longlisted for this years' Miles Franklin Literary Award. Perpetual, the trustee of the award, yesterday announced the 11 titles that have been awarded places on the 2023 longlist.
The Miles Franklin Literary Award was established by feminist, and author of My Brilliant Career, Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin. First presented in 1957, the Award celebrates novels of the highest literary merit that tell stories about Australian life, shining a light on some of the country’s most accomplished writers.
The judges say,
“The 2023 longlist is a reflection of the breadth and depth of contemporary Australian story-telling. The eleven longlisted novels define Australian literature as a transformative space where writers are singing the songs of the nation today. They reverberate with the cadences of this land where Indigenous sovereignty was never ceded, but also bring to us mellifluous sounds from far-away lands, weaving together literary traditions from around the world. The words of our novelists, grounded in personal experience, poetry and philosophy, are heralds of the new dawn of Australian fiction: they hum and hiss with language that is newly potent and styles that are imaginative and fresh.”
The shortlist will be announced 20 June 2023, and winners on 25 July 2023.
Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelist
George Haddad has also been recognised as one of three Best Young Australian Novelists by the Sydney Morning Herald. Each win a cash prize courtesy of the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund, determined by judging panel Fiona Kelly McGregor, Bram Presser and Melanie Kembrey. The other two winners of this award include Katerina Gibson (Women I Know) and Jay Carmichael (Marlo).
This year’s Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists have delivered a savagely funny short fiction collection, a tender love story set in the 1950s and a thought-provoking exploration of masculinity and sexual violence.
The judges said of Losing Face, it is a novel which brings new insights into sexual violence, while
"...ring[ing] with the sights and sounds of various locales in contemporary western Sydney."
On writing Losing Face, George says,
“It was really important for me to contribute to the conversation and to snapshot characters and situations that reflected contemporary Australian society as accurately as I knew it. The novel was always in me, but it was particularly sparked by my doctoral research on the intersection of masculinities, shame and suburbia,”
Jay Carmichael, Katerina Gibson and George Haddad will be in conversation at a free event at the Sydney Writers’ Festival at 3:30pm on Sunday, May 28.
