Bawdy, playful and intellectually ambitious: your guide to the 2025 Miles Franklin shortlist

Who is Siang Lu, whose novel ‘Ghost Cities’ just won Australia’s biggest literary award

A fake translator, an empty megacity, a lustful mountain, and now, Australia’s top literary prize. Siang Lu’s Ghost Cities is a satirical novel about language, exile, and the stories we tell to survive.

Chinese-Australian author wins major award

A novel about the Chinese diaspora in Australia, described as shimmering with satire, has won Brisbane author Siang Lu the Miles Franklin literary award.

Brisbane author Siang Lu wins 2025 Miles Franklin literary award

A novel about the Chinese diaspora in Australia, described as shimmering with satire, has won Brisbane author Siang Lu the Miles Franklin literary award.

Siang Lu's book languished in a drawer for years. Now it's won $60,000

Siang Lu has won the Miles Franklin Literary Award for his book Ghost Cities, about a Chinese translator who loses his job because he can't speak Mandarin.

Monolingual ‘bad Chinese’ author wins Miles Franklin

The $60,000 fiction prize has gone to a second-generation Chinese-Australian, who says his discursive style was forged as an “emotional latchkey kid”.

Miles Franklin Award makes history with 2025 winner, Siang Lu

The winner of the coveted $60,000 literary prize was blown away to make the longlist. Taking out the award has left him lost for words.