The Miles Franklin Award, the country's highest award for literature, has been awarded to Shankari Chandran, a writer of Tamil background, for her latest novel, “Chai Times at Cinnamon Gardens.”

The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to “a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases.” The award is based on the will of Miles Franklin (1879-1954), who published the famous Australian novel, ‘My Brilliant Career’ in 1901. The trust she established funds the award. The prize money has been increasing every year, and in 2016 the prize was worth 60,000 Australian dollars.

Kulasegaram Sanchayan talks to Shankari Chandran, the recipient of this year's award, about the award. Following that interview, you can listen to an interview Shankari Chandran gave us last year about the award-winning novel.

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Shankari's interview on her earlier book, Song of the Sun God: Part 1

Sri Lanka, an island filled with kindness and savagery - Part1

SBS Tamil

07/06/201714:49

Play

Part 2

Sri Lanka, an island filled with kindness and savagery - Part2

SBS Tamil

07/06/201715:20

Play

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