Judges Walk Out On Aussie Lit Prize

Three judges of Australia’s major book award have quit over changes in the powers of the jury. The administrators of the Mile Franklin Literary Award “adopted a charter that appoints the NSW State Librarian, Dagmar Schmidmaier, as permanent head of the jury, reduces the term of the other judges from six to three years, allows Trust to dismiss the judges without explanation, and prevents them from speaking to the media.”