AustLit

'What exciting times these are. Last year Alexis Wright's vast and mind-expanding novel Plains of Promise was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and this year Kim Scott's brilliant, confronting and lyrical novel Benang is the joint winner of one of Australia's most prestigious literary prizes, the Miles Franklin award. And this is only the beginning. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers' voices finally are being heard (though it must be noted, they are often more honoured and respected outside Australia). Increasingly, indigenous writers' skills and visions of the world in stories, plays, poetry and songs, are being recognised for what they are, the most recent flowering of intellectually and spiritually gifted members of the oldest continuous culture in the world.' (Abstract)