The Miles Franklin Literary Award has traditionally been Australia’s most prestigious prize. In the past generation, though, it had been challenged by newer awards with different rubrics, such as the Prime Minister’s Award and the Melbourne Prize; prizes of a fundamentally different nature, such as the Patrick White Literary Award given to underrated senior writers; and international awards such as the Booker and the Nobel for which Australians have become increasingly viable candidates. In response, the Miles Franklin broadened its formerly nationalist criteria and became more open to Indigenous, female and younger writers. This chapter discusses the significance of the award in the global publishing market of the twenty-first century, focusing both on how it spotlighted important writers and also made those quirky literary judgements which make literary prizes interesting.

To the casual observer living in an anglophone country, the past decade has ushered in a new golden age of literature in translation. Yet, a closer look at the data reveals a bleaker picture. As we move away from the ‘3 per cent problem’ and start to address new, more complex elements of translation and commerce, we need to find new terms to discuss what we do, new business practices that are born from non-cutthroat capitalist strategies, and new forms of revenue that will allow all of us to achieve what we really want: more readers for more books by more voices from around the world.