By LEN POWER

Omar Musa, local author, visual artist, rapper and poet from Queanbeyan has won the 2026 Miles Franklin Award for his novel, Fierceland, it was announced at the State Library of NSW in Sydney on Wednesday evening.

A first-time shortlised author for the 2026 Miles Franklin Award, Musa takes home the prestigious Australian literary prize and its $60,000 award.

Drawing on his own experiences visiting his extended family in Borneo throughout his life, Musa’s second novel had already won the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction.

Musa said he was “honoured, grateful and completely blown away” to receive the award, describing Fierceland as the result of years of work and the support of family, friends, editors, his publisher and others who had shaped the novel.

A trailblazing journey across the globe, Fierceland weaves the past and the present into an emotionally powerful family saga that plays out at a mythical scale.

Siblings Roz and Harun return to Borneo for the funeral of their father, Yusuf. A renowned palm-oil baron during Malaysia’s economic rise, Yusuf built the family’s immense wealth by destroying huge tracts of rainforest. Now, his children want to return something for their father’s theft from those forests. They will grapple with the legacy of power and corruption, dreamers and exiles and the ghosts of colonialism, family and language and the ghosts of the forest itself.

The judges described Fierceland as “a tour de force” set against the destruction of Borneo’s rainforests, praising Musa’s prose and its exploration of family, identity and environmental loss through the story of siblings confronting their father’s legacy.

Perpetual, trustee of the award, said Fierceland reflected the cultural depth and complexity of contemporary Australia. Perpetual Wealth managing partner Caitriona Fay said the win showed Australian literature continued to embrace new voices and broaden its understanding of the Australian experience.

The Miles Franklin is Australia’s most prestigious literary award. Apart from a cash prize of $60,000, the winning author goes into the history books alongside previous winners including Thea Astley, Tim Winton, Peter Carey, Melissa Lukashenko and the 2025 winner, Siang Lu.

Established under the will of My Brilliant Career author Stella Miles Franklin, the annual award honours a novel of the “highest literary merit” presenting “Australian life in any of its phases”.

Omar Musa is the son of Canberra CityNews Arts Editor, Helen Musa.

News all day, every day at CityNews.com.au.