Text congratulates Murray Bail on making the shortlist for the very prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award, with his latest novel The Pages. Murray won the 1999 Miles Franklin, and also the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, for his previous novel, Eucalyptus.

This year, he is up against some stiff competition, in an all-male line-up:

The Pages, Murray Bail
Breath, Tim Winton
Ice, Louis Nowra
The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
Wanting, Richard Flanagan

Tim Winton has won the Miles Franklin three times, and Christos Tsiolkas earlier this year won the Best Book for the region in the Commonwealth Writers Prize. You can see a full list of past winners here.

The winner of the $42,000 prize will be announced on 18 June in Sydney.