Four authors who have never previously featured in the latter stages of the Miles Franklin Literary Award have made their way onto the shortlist for Australia's premier literary prize.
Peggy Frew (Hope Farm), Myfanwy Jones (Leap), A.S. Patric (Black Rock White City) and Lucy Treloar (Salt Creek) – all Melbourne-based – join the much-lauded Charlotte Wood (The Natural Way of Things) on the list for the $60,000 prize.
Wood would seem to be the bookies' favourite given that The Natural Way of Things has already won the Stella Prize and been named independent booksellers' book of the year. Earlier this month she was awarded the first $100,000 writer-in-residence fellowship at the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre.
Were Wood to win the Miles Franklin, it would be the first time the same author had won it and the Stella, which was established four years ago in response to perceived bias against women writers in the Miles judging and used Miles Franklin's first name as its name. With four women on the shortlist, it's not a criticism that can be levelled this year.
Jones' second novel is about dealing with grief, something she said she had experienced too much of in her early adult years.
"Ten of my friends died through either misadventure or overdoses. I think I have experienced a little too much grief in my life and it just keeps coming back into my work.
"When I turned 40 it all came up again. I was trying to write a memoir but doing it as fiction was better."
Jones is the daughter of poet Evan Jones: "As a child, he always told us stories and read us fairytales. I have a treasured relationship with him. We both understand that words can be powerful and important and sometimes in scary ways."
Frew's Hope Farm was shortlisted for the Stella, but she described her listing for the Miles as "unbelievable".
"My first novel, House of Sticks, was set in the inner-city and had an almost claustrophobic feel to it. I knew that I wanted to break out and write something that felt open, broader but also beautiful."
Her novel is about the ambivalent relationship between a mother and daughter when they move to a commune to be with the mother's boyfriend.
Frew, who won The Age short-story award in 2008, is also a musician and plays with the indie band Art of Fighting. "We have an album three-quarters recorded, but I wouldn't hold your breath. I still love playing music, but writing is definitely my thing."
The winner will be announced at the opening of the Melbourne Writers Festival on August 26.
