Overview

• Siang Lu won the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award for Ghost Cities, securing the $60,000 top prize.
• The six shortlisted authors each received $5,000, with contenders ranging from two-time winner Michelle de Kretser to debut novelist Winnie Dunn.
• Ghost Cities follows a Chinese-Australian consulate translator who secretly relies on Google Translate, reflecting Lu’s own monolingual upbringing in Brisbane.
• Judges praised the debut novel as a grand farce and a haunting meditation on diaspora, declaring it a genuine landmark in Australian literature.
• Lu overcame more than 200 publisher rejections before Ghost Cities hit shelves in 2024, illustrating the barriers faced by emerging multicultural voices.