Franklin long-list honour for debuts
Jason Steger, The Age, March 17, 2010

Left - First-time Miles Franklin nominee Deborah Forster.
Photo: Roger Cummins

Many years ago Deborah Forster interviewed writer Olga Masters, whose first book, a short-story collection, was published when she was in her 60s.

''She was a big inspiration,'' Forster said yesterday, ''that you can start things later in life.''
So after a career in journalism, Forster last year published her first novel, The Book of Emmett.
Yesterday she was named on the long-list for this year's Miles Franklin prize, the most significant literary award in Australia. She said she was flabbergasted and delighted.

She is joined on the list by two other debut novelists, Glenda Guest and Patrick Allington, and previous winners Alex Miller, David Foster, Peter Carey and Thomas Keneally.

Forster said that as soon as her book was accepted for publication she realised she could devote herself to what she had always wanted to do - writing novels.

The Book of Emmett, which is set largely in Footscray, is about the influence Emmett Brown has on his family. Forster said it was ''vaguely autobiographical.
I think most fiction starts from your life and is a reworking of things that you want to understand.''

The full long-list is: Figurehead, Patrick Allington; Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey; The Bath Fugues, Brian Castro; Boy on a Wire, Jon Doust; The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster; Sons of the Rumour, David Foster; Siddon Rock, Glenda Guest; Butterfly, Sonya Hartnett; The People's Train, Thomas Keneally; Lovesong, Alex Miller; Jasper Jones, Craig Silvey; and Truth, Peter Temple.

The shortlist for the $42,000 prize, won last year by Tim Winton, will be announced next month.
The winner will be announced on June 22.