Fiona McFarlane

Fiona McFarlane
Born	1978 (age 46–47) Sydney, Australia
Occupation	Author
Notable work	The Night Guest (2013) The High Places (2016)

Fiona McFarlane (born 1978) is an Australian author, best known for her novel The Night Guest (2013) and her collections of short stories The High Places (2016) and Highway 13 (2024). She is a recipient of the Voss Literary Prize, the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Nita Kibble Literary Award.

Life and career

McFarlane was born in Sydney, Australia in 1978. ^[1] She studied English at the University of Sydney, the University of Cambridge and the University of Texas at Austin. ^[2]

Her debut novel, The Night Guest , was published in 2013 and is about a retired widow who lives alone and suffers from dementia. ^[3] It won the Voss Literary Prize and the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. ^[4] It was also shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, ^[5] the Stella Prize ^[4] and the Guardian First Book Award. ^[6]

In 2017, McFarlane won the Dylan Thomas Prize for her collection of short stories, The High Places. ^[4]

She was shortlisted for the Fiction Book Award at the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards and for the Fiction Award at the 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Awards for The Sun Walks Down (2022). ^{[7] [8]}

In 2025, her short story collection Highway 13 won The Story Prize. ^[9]

McFarlane's writing has also appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story , Southerly and The New Yorker . ^[2]

Literary

Year	Title	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2013	The Night Guest	Los Angeles Times Book Prize	Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction	Shortlisted
2014		Australian Book Industry Awards	Literary Fiction	Shortlisted
		Barbara Jefferis Award	—	Won
		Guardian First Book Award	—	Shortlisted	[6]
		Indie Book Awards	Debut Fiction	Shortlisted
		Miles Franklin Award	—	Shortlisted	[5]
		New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	UTS Glenda Adams Award	Shortlisted	[4]
		Nita Kibble Literary Awards	Dobbie Literary Award	Shortlisted
		Prime Minister's Literary Awards	Fiction	Shortlisted
		The Readings Prize	—	Shortlisted
		Stella Prize	—	Shortlisted	[4]
		Voss Literary Prize	—	Won
2016	The High Places	Queensland Literary Awards	Short Story Collection	Won	[7]
2017		ALS Gold Medal	—	Longlisted
		Dylan Thomas Prize	—	Won	[4]
		Stella Prize	—	Longlisted
2018		Nita Kibble Literary Awards	Nita B Kibble Literary Award	Won
2023	The Sun Walks Down	The Age Book of the Year Awards	Fiction	Shortlisted
		ARA Historical Novel Prize	Adult	Longlisted
		Australian Book Industry Awards	Literary Fiction	Shortlisted
		Indie Book Awards	Fiction	Longlisted
		Prime Minister's Literary Awards	Fiction	Shortlisted	[8]
		Walter Scott Prize	—	Shortlisted
2024		New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	Christina Stead Prize for Fiction	Shortlisted
		New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	People's Choice Award	Shortlisted
2025	Highway 13	The Story Prize	—	Won	[10]
		Victorian Premier's Literary Awards	Fiction	Won	[11]
		New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards	Christina Stead Prize for Fiction	Won	[12]
		Miles Franklin Award	—	Shortlisted	[13]

Bibliography

Novels

• —— (2013). The Night Guest. Penguin Group (Australia). ISBN   9781926428550.
• —— (2022). The Sun Walks Down. Allen & Unwin. ISBN   9781761185427.

Collections of short stories

• —— (2016). The High Places. Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Books. ISBN   9781926428567.
• —— (2024). Highway 13. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN   9780374606268.

Short stories in anthologies

• Kennedy, Cate, ed. (2010). "The Movie People". The Best Australian Stories 2010. Black Inc. ISBN   9781863954952.
• Tuffield, Aviva, ed. (22 November 2010). "Exotic Animal Medicine". New Australian Stories 2. Scribe (published 2010). ISBN   9781921640865.
• Adelaide, Debra, ed. (June 2015). "I Will Tell You Something". The Simple Act of Reading. Vintage Books (published 2015). ISBN   9780857986245.
• Wood, Charlotte, ed. (7 November 2016). "Good News for Modern Man". The Best Australian Stories 2016. Black Inc (published 2016). ISBN   9781863958868.
• Furman, Laura; Bradley, David (writer of supplementary textual content.); McCracken, Elizabeth (writer of supplementary textual content.); Watson, Brad (writer of supplementary textual content.) (5 September 2017). "Buttony". The O. Henry Prize Stories 2017. New York Anchor Books (published 2017). ISBN   9780525432500.

Online short stories

• "Art Appreciation" – published in The New Yorker on May 6, 2013
• "Buttony" – published in The New Yorker on February 29, 2016
• "Demolition" – published in The New Yorker on May 25, 2020

References

1. "Fiona McFarlane". www.swansea.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 26 February 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
2. "Fiona McFarlane". milesfranklin.com.au. 1 March 2015. Archived from the original on 1 March 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
3. Maier, Heidi (21 May 2014). "Fiona McFarlane: 'I wanted to explore dementia from the inside'". the Guardian. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
4. Morris, Linda (11 May 2017). "Australia's Fiona McFarlane wins $50,000 Dylan Thomas prize". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
5. "Miles Franklin Award 2014 Short". milesfranklin.com.au. 15 February 2015. Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
6. Flood, Alison (14 November 2014). "Guardian first book award 2014 shortlist covers neurosurgery, China, rural Ireland and more". the Guardian. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
7. "Queensland Literary Awards 2023 shortlists". Books+Publishing. 2 August 2023. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
8. "Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2023 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 26 October 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
9. "Fiona McFarlane's "Highway Thirteen," Wins The Story Prize". 26 March 2025.
10. "Here are this year's finalists for The Story Prize". Literary Hub. 13 January 2025. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
11. Story, Hannah (19 March 2025). "Growing up, Wanda got old dresses for Xmas. Her book about it just won $125k". ABC News. Retrieved 19 March 2025.
12. Story, Hannah (19 May 2025). "Nam Le wins major literary award, 16 years after winning for The Boat". ABC News. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
13. "Miles Franklin Literary Award 2025 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 25 June 2025. Retrieved 24 June 2025.