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36-528: The award derives its name from the author Miles Franklin , whose full name was "Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin." It was established by a group of 11 Australian women writers, editors, publishers and booksellers who became concerned about the poor representation of books by women in Australia's top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award . "After a rapid acceleration in women's rights in

72-691: A biography of Joseph Furphy (1944) "in painful collaboration with Kate Baker ". Previously, in 1939, she and Baker had won the Prior Memorial prize for an essay on Furphy. Dever writes that the letters between Dymphna Cusack and Miles Franklin that are published in Yarn Spinners "provide a see-sawing commentary on the delicate art of literary collaboration". In her will she made a bequest for her estate to establish an annual literary award known as The Miles Franklin Award . The first winner

108-515: A central character, along with British painters Grace Pailthorpe and Stanley Spencer , and Australian adventurer Olive King . Alice Henry Alice Henry (21 March 1857 – 14 February 1943) was an Australian suffragist , journalist and trade unionist who also became prominent in the American trade union movement as a member of the Women's Trade Union League . Henry Street in

144-547: A featured reporter for The Melbourne Argus and the Australian . Her journalism mainly focused on progressive causes such as labour reform, disabled children and proportional representation. She also became involved with Australian politics in the 1890s, and began to lecture on topics such as women's rights , suffrage and labour. She became closely associated with the progressive movement in Melbourne. Henry moved to

180-532: A lecture and investigation tour in Britain. After suffering financially during the Great Depression , Henry returned to Australia in 1933. She continued her work later in life, and compiled a bibliography of Australian woman writers in 1937. Henry died on 14 February 1943 in a hospital in Melbourne. Throughout her life Henry was passionate about feminism and the equal rights of women. Her passion for

216-475: A lecturer and field-worker. As a field worker Henry organised new branches, and as a journalist she became a key figure and voice in the campaign for 'woman suffrage, union organisation, vocational education, and labour legislation.' Between 1907 and 1925 Henry served as an editor, publicist and lecturer for the WTUL. Henry played an active role in mobilising both the middle class as well as trade union support for

252-415: A more positive shift in attitudes toward women in the industry. She cited that wages and factory conditions have improved and that in general industries had become more humanised. Henry did admit that the women had not been the only factor in these changes but that the increased power in women had a materially role in aiding these changes. Henry retired to Santa Barbara, California in 1928 after completing

288-609: A row with everyone & insisted on being head. I just let 'em muddle along and take no notice as I've had a year's training in London of English ways. Will think my own thoughts and write a book if the plot comes into my head. From 1919 to 1926 Franklin worked as Secretary with the National Housing and Town Planning Association in London. She organised a women's international housing convention in 1924. Her life in England in

324-767: A sanatorium for a period in 1912 In 1915, she travelled to England and worked as a cook and earned some money from journalism. In March 1917 Franklin volunteered for war work in the Ostrovo Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals during the Serbian campaigns of 1917–18. She served as a cook and later matron's orderly in a 200-bed tent hospital attached to the Serbian army near Lake Ostrovo in Macedonian Greece from July 1917 to February 1918. Was made staff cook against my will. ... Then Miss Brown made

360-584: A war on Australian soil at this time. While Miles Franklin had many suitors, she never married. She died on 19 September 1954, aged 74 and her ashes were scattered in Jounama Creek, Talbingo close to where she was born. Miles Franklin engaged in a number of literary collaborations throughout her life. In addition to co-editing the journal Life and Labor with Alice Henry in the US, she also wrote Pioneers on Parade in collaboration with Dymphna Cusack and

396-661: Is "no harder than comparing books in general," and that "excellence is achievable in any form." The 2021 Stella Prize guidelines opened entries to books by non-binary as well as women writers. Miles Franklin Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (14 October 1879 – 19 September 1954), known as Miles Franklin , was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel My Brilliant Career , published by Blackwoods of Edinburgh in 1901. While she wrote throughout her life, her other major literary success, All That Swagger ,

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432-562: Is important to note that she was not a leader or organiser of the women's movement rather she worked as a prominent publicist within it. Life and Labor was the journal of the National Women Trade Union League. It was published in Chicago and effectively promoted women's suffrage. On 19 May 1911 a suffrage meeting was held at The Pfister Hotel club room, there Henry urged that the best ways to obtain result

468-743: The Canberra suburb of Cook is named in her honour. Henry was born on 21 March 1857 in Richmond, Melbourne . She was the daughter of Charles Ferguson Henry, an accountant and his wife Margaret ( née Walker), a garment worker. She had one brother, Alfred, who was born in 1859. Both of her parents were Scottish and moved to Australia in 1853. She attended several schools in Melbourne , eventually matriculating with credit from Richard Hale Budd's Educational Institute for Ladies in 1874. After completing high school, Henry taught briefly and eventually became

504-714: The National Women's Trade Union League in Chicago, and co-edited the league's magazine, Life and Labor . Her years in the US are reflected in On Dearborn Street (not published until 1981), a love story that uses American slang in a manner not dissimilar to the early work of Dashiell Hammett . Also while in America she wrote Some Everyday Folk and Dawn (1909), the story of a small-town Australian family, which uses purple prose for deliberate comic effect. She suffered regular bouts of ill health and entered

540-630: The Order of the British Empire . In this period of her life Franklin was a constant attendee and speaker at various cultural and literary events. Her message was centred on free speech and the championing of Australian literature. Franklin was not a member of any political party, although her diaries reveal an interest in socialism and ASIO did have a file on Franklin during the Cold War. Franklin's literary friend P.R. ('Inky') Stephenson launched

576-527: The S. H. Prior Memorial Prize in 1939 together with Kate Baker for their collaborative work 'Who Was Joseph Furphy?'. Throughout her life, Franklin actively supported Australian literature . She joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers in 1933 and the Sydney PEN Club in 1935. She encouraged young writers such as Jean Devanny , Sumner Locke Elliott and Ric Throssell and she supported

612-482: The '70s and '80s, things have started to go backwards," Sophie Cunningham said in a keynote address at the 2011 Melbourne Writers' Festival . "Women continue to be marginalised in Australian culture and the arts sector – which likes to pride itself on its liberal values – is, in fact, complacent. Women are much less likely to win literary awards, to write reviews of books, or have their books reviewed. This, despite

648-514: The 1920s gave rise to Bring the Monkey (1933), a satire on the English country house mystery novel. The book reveals Franklin's views on nationality and class. The book was a literary and commercial failure. Franklin resettled in Australia in 1932 after the death of her father in 1931. During that decade she wrote several historical novels of the Australian bush, most of which were published under

684-811: The League's legislative, educational and organizational goals. As an activist she participated in many clubs such as the Melbourne Shakespeare Society , was secretary of the Women Writer's Club, lectured and frequently at women's organisations (like the Prahran and Kew Progressive League). Alice also served as an advisory member on committees set up by the National Council of Women and the Victorian Women's Federation. It

720-567: The United States from Australia in 1906 and became office secretary of the Women's Trade Union League in Chicago. While working for the Women's Trade Union League she became prominent in the fight for women's suffrage, union organisation and labour rights. She served a variety of jobs within the union including field organiser and director of the education department. Henry remained involved in writing during her time in America. She edited

756-506: The WTUL and the working-class women. A possible solution that she advocated was the establishment of separate women's locals. Henry's background with Fabian socialism, as well as her knowledge of Australian labour legislation and woman suffrage attracted the attention of Margaret Dreier Robins , a prominent reformer of the time. Henry was invited by Robins to work for the National Women's Trade Union League of America in Chicago as

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792-475: The ability to captivate American audiences when she spoke due to her conviction and energy she exuded. Henry saw current legislation and policy as not helping. "I do not feel that the vote is any sort of advance for women. If you give suffrage to men and not women you are putting women on a relatively lower plane. Society will go backward if women don't get to vote." Through her own personal experience in Australia she said that women's suffrage there had resulted in

828-630: The fact they write about half the books published." Some commentators, such as Erin Handley writing in The Age , have said that fiction and non-fiction are different genres that should be judged separately, highlighting that this is an issue for the Stella Prize. But this is rejected by Dr. Kerryn Goldsworthy , the chair of the Stella judging panel, who stated that comparing fiction and non-fiction

864-545: The local Goulburn newspaper. Her best known novel, My Brilliant Career , tells the story of an irrepressible teenage girl, Sybylla Melvyn, growing to womanhood in rural New South Wales. It was published in 1901 with the support of Australian writer, Henry Lawson . After its publication, Franklin tried a career in nursing, and then as a housemaid in Sydney and Melbourne. Whilst doing this she contributed pieces to The Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald under

900-645: The new literary journals, Meanjin and Southerly . Miles entertained literary figures at her home in Carlton, NSW. An autograph book known as Miles Franklin's Waratah Book held by the State Library of NSW was used for autographs and inscriptions. Guests were encouraged to drink tea from the Waratah Cup and to write in the Waratah Book. In 1937, Franklin declined appointment as an Officer of

936-441: The pro-isolationist, anti-war Australia First Movement in late 1941, to which Franklin was vehemently opposed, as evidenced by her diary entries and correspondence at the time - "Reds or pinks or 'rightists' all showed their ignorance" she wrote after attending a AFM meeting, and of Stephenson "I could not have anything to do with his politics". Franklin was staunchly anti-war and, traumatized by her WWI experiences, very much feared

972-497: The pseudonym "Brent of Bin Bin". New South Wales State Librarian, Dagmar Schmidmaier , said "Miles increasingly feared that nothing she wrote matched the success of My Brilliant Career and resorted to writing under different names, including the pseudonym Brent of Bin Bin, to protect herself from poor reviews." However, All That Swagger was published under her own name in 1936, winning the S. H. Prior Memorial Prize . Franklin also won

1008-506: The pseudonyms "An Old Bachelor" and "Vernacular." During this period she wrote My Career Goes Bung in which Sybylla encounters the Sydney literary set, but it was not released to the public until 1946. An overtly anti-war play, The Dead Must Not Return , was not published or performed but received a public reading in September 2009. In 1906, Franklin moved to the US and undertook secretarial work for Alice Henry , another Australian, at

1044-576: The women's section of the Chicago Union Labor Advocate and was the founding editor of the Women's Trade Union League's Life and Labor periodical until 1915. Henry also wrote two books, The Trade Union Woman (1915) and Women and the Labor Movement (1923). Both of these books focus on the particular struggles and inequalities working-class women faced during this time period. The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL)

1080-679: Was Patrick White with Voss in 1957. The Canberra suburb of Franklin and the nearby primary school Miles Franklin Primary School are named in her honour. The school holds an annual writing competition in her memory. Additionally the Franklin Public School in Tumut , NSW is also named in her honour. During her lifetime Miles Franklin donated several items to the Mitchell Library . Manuscript material

1116-487: Was established in 1903 and consisted of reformers seeking to combine trade unionism and feminism to create a new force towards the obstacles women faced when organising women into unions. In Henry's 1915 essay "A Separate Piece" published in The Trade Union Woman she discussed some of the problems associated with organising. One of the issues she addressed was the tension between middle-class reformers of

Stella Prize - Misplaced Pages Continue

1152-541: Was further recognised in 2013 with the creation of the Stella Prize , awarded annually for the best work of literature by an Australian woman. Franklin was born at Talbingo, New South Wales , and grew up in the Brindabella Valley on a property called Brindabella Station . She was the eldest child of Australian-born parents, John Maurice Franklin and Susannah Margaret Eleanor Franklin, née Lampe, who

1188-427: Was not published until 1936. She was committed to the development of a uniquely Australian form of literature, and she actively pursued this goal by supporting writers, literary journals, and writers' organisations. She has had a long-lasting impact on Australian literary life through her endowment of a major annual prize for literature about "Australian Life in any of its phases", the Miles Franklin Award . Her impact

1224-899: Was presented over the period 1937–1942. The various drafts of "Pioneers on Parade" were presented in 1940. She bequeathed her printed book collection, correspondence and notes as well as the poems of Mary Fullerton . 47 of Miles Franklin's diaries are in the State Library of New South Wales , including one copy discovered in 2018. A revival of interest in Franklin occurred in the wake of the Australian New Wave film My Brilliant Career (1979), which won several international awards. In 2014, Google Doodle celebrated her 135th birthday. In her 2022 novel, Salonika Burning , The Australian writer Gail Jones fictionalises Miles Franklin (as 'Stella'), and her experiences in Macedonia, as

1260-530: Was the great-granddaughter of Edward Miles (or Moyle) who had arrived with the First Fleet in the Scarborough with a seven-year sentence for theft. Her family was a member of the squattocracy . She was educated at home until 1889 when she attended Thornford Public. During this period she was encouraged in her writing by her teacher, Mary Gillespie (1856–1938) and Tom Hebblewhite (1857–1923) editor of

1296-431: Was to carry out a campaign along intensive lines. There she advocated for street meetings to create interest in the suffrage cause. Henry said, "Many persons will stop to listen at a street meeting who would not come to a suffrage meeting...The talks should be short about five minutes for those who are attracted will only pause for a few moments and a long speech would be lost on them. Any ready speaker would do." Henry had

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