'I thought it meant I must have sold out in some way, not telling the hard-hitting stories,' Lucashenko recalls. Her previous novel, Mullumbimby, had been longlisted for the Miles Franklin and was 'a critical success'. The 2019 judging panel is chaired by State Library of NSW's Mitchell Librarian Richard Neville, and comprised of author and literary critic Dr Bernadette Brennan, journalist Murray Waldren, author and book critic Dr Melinda Harvey, and bookseller Lindy Jones.Past winners include Patrick White, Ruth Park, Thea Astley, Tim Winton, Peter Carey and David Ireland.It distinguishes a novel 'of the highest literary merit' which presents 'Australian life in any of its phases'.It was established in the will of author Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (author of My Brilliant Career).The Miles Franklin Award was first awarded in 1957.With Too Much Lip, Lucashenko, a woman of Goorie/Bundjalung and European heritage, set out to write 'a really hard-nosed book'. I have no idea what to do next, other than keep plugging away at my civilising mission to mainstream Australia.' Bearing witness to the lives of Aboriginal women I only recently realised that I could be doing so much more in my writing - and now this goes and happens. In a statement made after the news had sunk in, she said: 'It's kind of terrifying.

She told the ABC her first response to learning of her win was 'Bugger me dead!' - followed by shocked silence. Lucashenko is the third Indigenous Australian writer to win the $60,000 Miles Franklin, following Kim Scott (who shared the prize in 2000 for Benang, and won again in 2011 with That Deadman Dance) and Alexis Wright (who won the award in 2007, for Carpentaria). This year's Miles Franklin shortlist featured two-time Miles Franklin award-winner Rodney Hall and three-time shortlisted author Gail Jones, as well as first-time nominees Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Gregory Day and Jennifer Mills. ( Supplied: University of Queensland Press) Lucashenko is a Bundjalung woman born in Brisbane.

Too much lip book