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Updated May 20, 2026 — 12:53pm,first published 10:45am
Ten novels have been longlisted for the nation’s most prestigious literary award, including Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Discipline, which has been embroiled in ongoing debates about censorship, politics and artistic freedom.
The novel’s inclusion on the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist caps a turbulent few months for Abdel-Fattah, whose appearances at writers festivals around the country have sparked a firestorm of debate about institutional power and free speech – themes that sit at the heart of Discipline itself.
Earlier this year, a writers’ boycott led to the cancellation of Adelaide Writers’ Week after the Adelaide Festival board removed the Palestinian-Australian writer and academic from its program. In March, Newcastle Writers Festival faced political pressure over Abdel-Fattah’s appearance, while Sydney Writers’ Festival has defended its decision to host sessions, which quickly sold out, this week.
Amid the controversy, Discipline has received significant literary recognition, winning the People’s Choice Award at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and being shortlisted for the Multicultural NSW Award at the NSW Literary Awards.
Abdel-Fattah was also among dozens of authors who boycotted Discipline’s publisher – the University of Queensland Press (UQP) – in April after it dropped a children’s book over comments by its illustrator that it said breached the university’s antisemitism policy.
The beleaguered UQP emerged as the only publishing house with two books on the Miles Franklin longlist, including Steve MinOn’s First Name Second Name.
Alongside established names including Toni Jordan for Tenderfoot and Josephine Rowe for Little World – both previously longlisted for the Miles Franklin – this year’s field also highlights a new generation of writers.
Four debut novelists – MinOn, Dominic Amerena (I Want Everything), Konrad Muller (My Heart at Evening) and Lyn Dickens (Salt Upon the Water) – made the cut alongside second novels by Madeleine Watts (Elegy, Southwest), Omar Musa (Fierceland) and Sean Wilson (You Must Remember This).
First awarded in 1957, when Patrick White won for Voss, the $60,000 prize honours “the novel of the highest literary merit that presents Australian life in any of its phases”. Last year’s prize went to Siang Lu for Ghost Cities.
The longlist stretches far beyond the classic outback settings long associated with the prize, taking readers across London, Venice, Calcutta and Penang; on an American road trip; and from Sydney to Malaysian Borneo and Los Angeles, as well as across Australia. Themes of eco-anxiety, sacrifice, ancestral inheritance and colonial violence run throughout the list.
This year’s judging panel was chaired by the State Library of NSW’s Mitchell Librarian Richard Neville and included literary scholars Jumana Bayeh, Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Tony Hughes-d’Aeth and Maggie Nolan.
“Destabilised histories, faltering memories and chequered geographies meet in the pages of the 2026 Miles Franklin longlist,” the judging panel said.
“From Far North Queensland to Tasmania and all the way to remote Western Australia, these novels remind us of the vastness of this continent, the many times and places that Australian stories inhabit, and the global networks in which ‘Australian life’ is invariably embedded.
“This year’s longlist is haunted by ancestral inheritances, the human capacity for self-deception, and the ways we make space for grief. These novels hold up mirrors to little worlds and large ones too.”
The shortlist will be announced in June, and the winner in August.
The 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist
Randa Abdel-Fattah, Discipline (University of Queensland Press)
Dominic Amerena, I Want Everything (Summit Books)
Lyn Dickens, Salt Upon the Water (Wakefield Press)
Toni Jordan, Tenderfoot (Hachette Australia)
Steve MinOn, First Name Second Name (University of Queensland Press)
Konrad Muller, My Heart at Evening (Evercreech Editions)
Omar Musa, Fierceland (Penguin Random House Australia)
Josephine Rowe, Little World (Black Inc)
Madeleine Watts, Elegy, Southwest (Ultimo Press)
Sean Wilson, You Must Remember This (Affirm Press)
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