Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (1879-1954) was born in Old Talbingo, Australia. Despite a difficult and isolated childhood ? she grew up in the impoverished bush regions of New South Wales, with limited education she completed her first book at the age of just nineteen. The ironically titled My Brilliant Career (1901) was published under a male pseudonym, to immediate success and acclaim. Its story of an impassioned, ambitious heroine frustrated by rural bush life resonated with young Australian women and established Franklin as a bold new feminist voice in literature. Following the publication of her debut novel, Franklin moved to Sydney, then on to America and Britain. She wrote and published a total of nineteen books across her lifetime, as well as working as an editor and women's advocate in organisations such as the National Women's Trade Union League. Her endowment of a major literary award ? the Miles Franklin Award ? has consolidated her legacy in Australian literary life.