The newly crowned winner of Australia’s Miles Franklin award, Jennifer Down, celebrated her win in a style befitting the remote ceremonies of the pandemic: with a handmade sash and a plastic tiara.
The 31-year-old, who won the country’s most prestigious literary prize this week, delighted fans on Thursday when she described her family’s surprise celebration, which featured a plastic red carpet (“murder or slip and slide?”), matching T-shirts, bouquets and an A4 printed sign on the front door that said “Miles Franklin Ceremony inside”.
Down entered her parent’s home before the Wednesday announcement expecting a low key affair of “champagne and vegan sausage rolls” – but the fanfare wasn’t without precedent.
“They have been known to do these sort of things before,” she said. “We enjoy making a fuss of each other … any excuse for a celebration.”
yesterday arvo when i arrived at my parents’ to watch the announcement over a glass of champers, this was what i walked in to. please note the red carpet pic.twitter.com/lQUvqjGS1u
— spooky spice (@jenniferdown) July 21, 2022
Her parents couldn’t have been prouder, sitting down to the ceremony wearing matching T-shirts adorned with “Father of the Miles Franklin winner” and “Mother of the Miles Franklin winner”.
Her sister opted for something a little more understated: a T-shirt reading “hot people read Bodies of Light”.
“They were ordered online and weren’t going to arrive in time, so at last minute my sister had to drive somewhere on the day to pick them up,” Down said.
this was the general tasteful vibe: me in a thermal i’d put on at 4am that morning, a custom-made sash, two confused labradors pic.twitter.com/ATzqGwWOnr
— spooky spice (@jenniferdown) July 21, 2022
Printed signs were littered throughout the house, including on a chair “reserved for the Miles Franklin winner”. Another alerted to “autographs with the Miles Franklin winner ahead”.
“My sister said her brief was be as silly and tacky as possible,” Down said.
“There was something deeply beautiful about it. I was there in the same clothes I’d worn all day, without makeup. We were all in our jeans and tracksuit pants … for what has been an overwhelming week it was nice just to be with those I’m closest to.”
The Melbourne writer said she was still processing the “immeasurable impact” of the $60,000 prize – one of the country’s richest book awards – on her writing life.
Bodies of Light is Down’s second novel and her first to be shortlisted for the Miles Franklin; it has been praised for its frank unpacking of the impacts of childhood trauma.
Her debut novel and subsequent short story collection – Our Magic Hour and Pulse Points – won the Sydney Morning Herald young novelist of the year award two years in a row.
“I have Bodies of Light merch, but when my second book [won] best young novelist my parents had two dozen mugs printed with the book cover and title of honour,” Down said.
“My mum and sister have been driving around for a year with magnetised book covers stuck to the outsides of their cars.
“It’s lovely – they’ve been crazy for a long time, we’re all insane.”
As for the fate of the sash? Down said it would take “pride of place” in her studio.
“My parents encouraged me to wear it on screen [for breakfast interviews], but if you weren’t familiar with my family it would’ve been immodest at best and absolutely fucking insane at worst so I declined,” she said.
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down is published by Text
