'
Siang Lu has just won the most prestigious literary prize in Australia – more than 200 rejections later
International

Siang Lu has just won the most prestigious literary prize in Australia – more than 200 rejections later

author
3 minutes, 3 seconds Read

Brisbane writer Siang Lu has won the Miles Franklin Literary Award for his novel Ghost Cities, after more than 200 publishers have rejected the manuscript.
The 39-year-old author said he was shocked when he found out that he had won the prize of $ 60,000 after he was put on the shortlist for the first time.
“I just sat down and actually lost all the feeling in my hands and legs, and I lost my voice,” he said.
“It was one of the first times in my life where I actually had to ask someone with full seriousness, just to tell me that I didn’t dream.”

The most prestigious literary prize in Australia was announced on Thursday evening during a ceremony in Sydney, in which LU revealed that he completed the manuscript for ghost cities in 2015, but it was rejected more than 200 times by publishers in Australia and Overzee.

Siang Lu accepted the $ 60,000 price on Thursday evening at an event in Sydney. Source: MONKEY / Jane Dempster

“I used to print my rejections and squeezed them on the glass panel between my office and my bedroom. My youngest child, Madeleine, was just born-and she would be nine-and she would do that big bed while I worked and kept an eye on her,” he said in his acceptance speech.

“The rejections continued to accumulate. Eventually they became so numerous that I could no longer look through the glass, into the bedroom where my daughter slept.”

A ‘milestone’ in Australian literature

The winning book was finally published by the University of Queensland Press and is described by critics as both intellectually ambitious and Zany, and by the Miles Franklin judges as a “real monument” in Australian literature.
“Siang Lu’s Ghost Cities is at the same time a Grand Farce and a spooky meditation on diaspora. Sitting in a tradition in Australian writing that is investigating failed expatrisation and cultural fraud, the novel by LU is also something striking news,” the jury members said.
“Ghost Cities shines with satire and wisdom, and with an absurdist Bravura, is a real monument in Australian literature.”
LU says that his victory changes things dramatically – not only financially, but in terms of recognition for the quality of his work.

Ghost Cities was inspired by mega cities built in China during the real estate tree of the country, many of which were left uninhabited and hit in ruin.

A man with a price frame and smiles.

The Ghost Cities manuscript was completed in 2015, but was rejected more than 200 times by publishers in Australia and abroad. Source: MONKEY / Jane Dempster

It weaves several stories together – including those of a young man who is fired from his work as a translator in the Chinese consulate in Sydney, when it is discovered, he is monolingual and trusts on Google Translate.

There is also a chess machine with a secret, and an old emperor who creates a thousand replicas of himself.
Since his novel was on the shelves in 2024, LU has discovered what he describes as a perverse joy in chat with his readers, while trying to guess what Ghost Cities actually says.
The answer is less complex than readers can imagine: “It tries to be funny,” he promises.
The debut novel by Siang Lu was The Whitewash 2022, while his online tracking project De Beige Index – described as “The Bechdel Test for Race” in the film industry – found an audience worldwide.
The shortlist of 2025 was dominated by color writers, including veteran Brian Castro, who made the shortlist four times, and two -time winner Michelle de Kretser.
The six authors on the shortlist for the Miles Franklin also receive $ 5,000 from the Cultural Fund of the Copyright Agency.

#Siang #won #prestigious #literary #prize #Australia #rejections

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *