2023 Winner
By Shankari Chandran
On winning the award, Chandran said: “It’s such an honour to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award, honestly, I’m still in shock. To be recognised among my Australian writing peers in this way is extraordinary. It means so much to me that Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, a novel that explores what it means to ‘be Australian’, has been recognised in this way.”
When describing this year’s winning novel, the judges said, “Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is alive with character, dialogue and action. With enormous skill Chandran recounts a solemn history, largely through a cast of squabbling, endearing elders, and invites us to open our hearts and minds: ‘If you read the literature of a country…you will understand it; you will fall in love with it.’”