Novel taking on controversial palm oil industry wins $60,000 literary prize

Malaysian Australian author Omar Musa has been awarded the prestigious $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award for his novel Fierceland. The novel, which won the 2026 Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, explores themes of inheritance, complicity, and colonialism through the story of two siblings from Kota Kinabalu on Borneo. Fierceland's judges praised the book as a "tour de force set against the backdrop of the destruction of Borneo's rainforests," highlighting the way Musa reimagines Malay storytelling traditions in an Australian context.

Musa, who grew up in Queanbeyan and has family ties to Malaysia, drew inspiration for the novel from his Malay heritage and the palm oil industry's impact on the region. While acknowledging the destructive nature of palm oil cultivation, Musa argues that the industry has also lifted rural families out of poverty. Fierceland follows the journey of Yusuf and Jenab, parents of Roz and Harun, as they navigate the complexities of their father's legacy as a palm oil baron and the consequences of his actions on the environment and the people who live in the forests.