Sri Lankan-born author named winner of Miles Franklin Literary Award

Sri Lankan born author Michelle De Krester has been named winner of the 2013 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her fourth novel, questions of travel, at a ceremony in Canberra.
De Kretser beat four other shortlisted authors – all women, for the first time in the prize’s history with her novel set in Australia and Sri Lanka, where she was born that touches upon travel, tourism and flight through its double narrative structure.

Reviewing the boor for Guardian, Byatt described it as a novel quite unlike any other.

De Kretser was educated at Methodist College, Colombo and in Melbourne and Paris.

She worked as an editor for travel guides company Lonely Planet, and while on a sabbatical in 1999, wrote and published her first novel,The Rose Grower. Her second novel, published in 2003, The Hamilton Case was winner of the Tasmania Pacific Prize, the Encore Award (UK) and the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Southeast Asia and Pacific).

The Lost Dog was published in 2007. It was one of 13 books on the long list for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

From 1989 to 1992 she was a founding editor of the Australian Women's Book Review.

Her fourth novel, Questions of Travel, won the 2013 Miles Franklin Award.