Friday, June 27, 2014

Evie Wyld named winner of 2014 Miles Franklin Literary Award

Evie Wyld named winner of 2014 Miles Franklin Literary Award


"...British novelist Evie Wyld has won the 2014 Miles Franklin literary award for her novel, All the Birds, Singing.The Miles Franklin award is Australia’s highest literary honour, celebrating Australian literature that features aspects of Australian life.
Wyld’s novel, a dark tale centred around the mysterious deaths of a protagonist’s sheep, has won multiple awards since its release, including the Encore award and a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize....."
In recent years, the prize judges have taken a wider view of what constitutes Australian life, with two of this year’s shortlisted novels, including Wyld’s, largely unfolding overseas.
Wyld’s novel begins by demonstrating the physical and mental strength of protagonist Jake Whyte, as she holds her own in a shearing shed. Yet this Australian past, tantalisingly revealed in reverse order alongside her present life as a resident in an isolated farmhouse on an island in England, shows that Jake is also a victim of a masculinist culture. http://theconversation.com/and-the-winner-of-the-miles-franklin-award-is-evie-wyld-28522

Miles Franklin winner: an outsider's dark view of Australian masculinity

http://www.theguardian.com/books/australia-culture-blog/2014/jun/27/miles-franklin-winner-an-outsiders-dark-view-of-australian-masculinity
......And Wyld's winning book, All the Birds, Singing, is clearly the work of a tourist, not a local, by which I mean all those aspects of daily existence down under, the micro-phenomena of local culture so ubiquitous as to be invisible to the rest of us, are bright objects for her magpie imagination to collect. These include daytime television, soft drinks, chocolates and cigarette brands, and in particular 1980s slang. She is a sort of dinkum Proust – in love with all the vulgar gewgaws and gimcracks of Australian life, rather than its fancy bits......



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