Cirrus@Austlit

'The literary awards season shifted into gear this week with the Indie Awards and the release of the Miles Franklin longlist. The former, voted on by Australia's independent booksellers, has a habit of picking books that will go on to do well with prize judges and civilian readers alike. We also have a shortlist for the inaugural Stella Prize for Australian women's literature, set up partly to counter a perceived male bias in the Miles Franklin, and a longlist for its British-based inspiration, the Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly Orange Prize). It's early days -- we have the various state-based book prizes and the refreshingly idiosyncratic Prime Minister's Literary Awards to come -- but already some works look like being major players throughout the awards season, just as Anna Funder's All That I Am and Gillian Mears's Foal's Bread were last year. Melbourne writer Carrie Tiffany is on the Miles Franklin, Stella and Women's Prize lists for her second novel, Mateship with Birds. London-based ML Stedman is in the running for the Miles Franklin and the Women's Prize for her debut novel The Light Between Oceans and Sri Lankan-born Sydney author Michelle de Kretser is a Miles Franklin and Stella contender for Questions of Travel. I won't be at all surprised if these three books fight out the big local literary awards. Stedman has a head start after picking up the awards for best debut fiction and overall book of the year at the Indies. '(Abstract from publisher)