Fiona McFarlane

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.

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

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]
		ALS Gold Medal	—	Won	[14]

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