Omar Musa Wins Miles Franklin for Fierceland

Omar Musa has won the 2026 Miles Franklin Literary Award, one of Australia's most prestigious literary prizes, for his novel Fierceland. The $60,000 award was announced while Musa was in the Philippines, and he described the moment as "mind-blowing" in an interview with ABC Arts.

"You can never predict or expect something like this, but I'm really stoked to have my work recognised and acknowledged alongside such amazing peers," he said. "It also acknowledges the work of a lot of people behind the scenes. There's always this mythology about the solitary author up in their tower, scribbling away by themselves. But for me, fiction is often a collaborative [effort] with mentors and advisors and readers and editors."

Fierceland, Musa's second novel, also won the 2026 Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction. The book follows two siblings who grow up in Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo. As children of a palm oil baron, they must confront his complicated legacy when they return to Malaysia for his funeral as adults.

The Miles Franklin judges called Fierceland "a tour de force set against the backdrop of the destruction of Borneo's rainforests." They noted that the forest, cleared for palm oil plantations, serves as the moral center of the novel, and praised Musa's "rhythmic prose" for its defiance. The judges also highlighted how the book "refashions the venerable, vernacular hikayat traditions of Malay storytelling into new Australian idioms."

A Personal Journey

Musa grew up in Queanbeyan, a regional city near Canberra, with a mixed Australian and Malaysian heritage. His mother, Helen Musa, was a magazine editor and arts journalist who met his father in Malaysia when she directed him in a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. His father was cast in the lead role.

Upon winning the award, Musa said he immediately called his mother. "My mother has been absolutely instrumental in helping to shape me and give me the freedom of imagination to create my art," he said. "But not just me, anyone who's in the arts in Canberra or Queanbeyan would know my mother, Helen Musa."

Reflecting on his childhood, Musa described a dichotomy between Queanbeyan's suburban life and Canberra's arts scene. "I grew up in the flats there, spent a lot of time on the river fishing, getting up to all sorts of scallywaggery, running around the drains in the river and the streets there," he said. "I was [also] able to go to a lot of exhibitions, a lot of theatre shows, a lot of concerts. And so I had a bit of a weird upbringing in that way, because growing up in the flats in Queanbeyan, but having this privileged sort of access to the arts was really inspiring, really generative."

He noted that while many boys his age were encouraged toward sports, his storytelling was nurtured. "My parents would give me a piece of paper and pen and tell me that I'd never be bored if I had that," he said. "I was an only child, so I would just draw stuff or write my little dreamings and thoughts down. I'm still pretty much doing exactly the same [thing]."

Writing Process and Research

Musa's novel took shape over more than five years, going through 21 drafts. He conducted extensive research for the book, including speaking with people in the jungles of Borneo. Musa had traveled to Borneo several times as a child, and those visits informed the novel's setting and themes.

The novel takes on the palm oil industry, a subject often seen as maligned. Through the story of the siblings and their father's legacy, Musa explores questions of inheritance and complicity, weaving personal and planetary concerns into a narrative that spans generations.

About the Author

Omar Musa is a multi-disciplinary artist, known as a poet, hip hop artist, theatre performer, and visual artist. He is also a former Australian slam poetry champion. His first novel was published before Fierceland, which has now earned him two major Australian literary awards.