Announced today by Perpetual, first-time shortlistee Siang Lu has won the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award for his novel, Ghost Cities – a bold and satirical reimagining of Australian storytelling.
On winning the award, Lu said: “I am honoured beyond belief, and beyond words. I didn't dare dream of this. It didn't seem possible. My most heartfelt thanks to Perpetual as trustee for the Miles Franklin Literary Award estate, the Copyright Agency, my publisher Aviva Tuffield and the wonderful team at UQP, and my agent Brendan Fredericks.”
Established through the will of My Brilliant Career author, Stella Miles Franklin, for the “advancement, improvement and betterment of Australian literature,” the Miles Franklin Literary Award recognises a novel of “the highest literary merit” that presents “Australian life in any of its phases.” Perpetual serves as Trustee for the Award.
Perpetual’s National Manager – Philanthropy & Non Profit Services, Community, Social and ESG Investment, Jane Magor, said: “Miles Franklin established this Award to celebrate literature that reflects the evolving spirit of Australian life. In Ghost Cities, Siang Lu not only captures the complexities of identity and belonging but also redefines what Australian literature can be. His win is a powerful reminder that our stories are ever-changing – and that the literary tradition Miles Franklin envisioned continues to grow in daring and unexpected ways.”
Siang will receive $60,000 in prize money.
When describing this year’s winning novel, the judges said, “Siang Lu’s Ghost Cities is at once a grand farce and a haunting meditation on diaspora. Sitting within a tradition in Australian writing that explores failed expatriation and cultural fraud, Lu’s novel is also something strikingly new. In Ghost Cities, the Sino-Australian imaginary appears as a labyrinthine film-set, where it is never quite clear who is performing and who is directing. Shimmering with satire and wisdom, and with an absurdist bravura, Ghost Cities is a genuine landmark in Australian literature.”
The 2025 judging panel comprises Richard Neville, Mitchell Librarian of the State Library of NSW and Chair; literary scholar, A/Prof Jumana Bayeh; literary scholar and translator, Dr Mridula Nath Chakraborty; literary scholar and author, Prof Tony Hughes-d’Aeth; and author and literary scholar, Prof Hsu-Ming Teo.
The award was announced at a ceremony in Sydney on 24 July.
The award’s media partner for 2025 is the ABC.