HarperVia signs Miles Franklin Award-winner

HarperVia UK is publishing Tara June Winch’s novel The Yield, which won Australia's top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, in 2020.

In The Yield, published in the UK on 7th January 2021, a young indigenous Australian woman returns from England to her home town of Massacre Plains to attend her grandfather’s funeral. The synopsis goes on: “Finding her family home and land under threat from plans for a tin mine, she knows that she must preserve her family’s heritage by finding evidence of the culture and traditions the land is steeped in, so she goes in search of a dictionary of words in Wiradjuri–the language of her ancestral tribe–that her grandfather was compiling before his death.”

Anna Kelly, editorial director at HarperVia, said: “Thought-provoking, layered and moving, The Yield masterfully interweaves three timelines to tell a story about suffering, prejudice, culture, language and heritage. It’s an important novel to be publishing in the UK as it highlights an area of history we know shockingly little about here. It’s also an inspiring celebration of the power of language, and in that way a perfect book to have found a home among HarperVia’s growing list of international treasures.”

World English rights  were acquired originally by Penguin Random House Australia from Melanie Ostell at Melanie Ostell Literary. World English rights excluding Australia and New Zealand were acquired by Rosie Black and Judith Curr at HarperVia US from Pamela Malpas at the Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency LLC on behalf of Nerrilee Weir at Penguin Random House Australia. Penguin Random House Australia is the rights contact for all rights to The Yield. Tara June Winch is represented by Peter Straus at RCW.