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.