Here we go again!

There are few certainties in this world, but newspapers can be relied on to conjure stories and brouhahas from a select group of cultural activities. Screen a movie to a class of undergraduates, or add pulp fiction to a curriculum, and The Australian – possibly even the prime minister – will be down on you like a ton of bricks. Should Opera Australia go into the red, all hell can be relied on to break loose. If Radio National has the audacity to cover both sides of a story, you can be sure it will pay a heavy price.

The Miles Franklin Award has long been good fodder, and has filled many a gaping column. And why? Perhaps because of its pre-eminence in the Australian literary culture, and because of the precise nature of Miles Franklin’s wishes in endowing the Award, which was first presented in 1957 to Patrick White’s Voss.