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. She studied English at the University of Sydney, the University of Cambridge and the University of Texas at Austin.
Her debut novel, The Night Guest, was published in 2013 and is about a retired widow with dementia who lives alone. It won the Voss Literary Prize and the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, the Stella Prize and the Guardian First Book Award.
In 2017, McFarlane won the Dylan Thomas Prize for her collection of short stories, The High Places.
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).
In 2025, her short story collection Highway 13 won The Story Prize.
McFarlane's writing has also appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, Southerly and The New Yorker.
Literary Year Title Award Category Result Ref. 2013 The Night Guest Los Angeles Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction 2014 Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Barbara Jefferis Award — Guardian First Book Award — Indie Book Awards Debut Fiction Miles Franklin Award — New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards UTS Glenda Adams Award Nita Kibble Literary AwardsDobbie Literary Award Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction The Readings Prize — Stella Prize — Voss Literary Prize — 2016 The High Places Queensland Literary Awards Short Story Collection 2017 ALS Gold Medal — Dylan Thomas Prize — Stella Prize — 2018 Nita Kibble Literary Awards Nita B Kibble Literary Award 2023 The Sun Walks Down The Age Book of the Year Awards Fiction ARA Historical Novel Prize Adult Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Indie Book Awards Fiction Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction Walter Scott Prize — 2024 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize for Fiction New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards People's Choice Award 2025Highway 13The Story Prize—Victorian Premier's Literary AwardsFictionNew South Wales Premier's Literary AwardsChristina Stead Prize for Fiction Miles Franklin Award—ALS Gold Medal—Prime Minister's Literary AwardsFictionVoss Literary Prize—
Bibliography
Novels
Collections of short stories
Short stories in anthologies
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