And the winner of the Miles Franklin Award is….

Evie Wyld for All the Birds, Singing.

The Miles Franklin Award is presented each year to a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases.

The Miles Franklin was first awarded in 1957. Since then, the annual announcement of the winner has become an event anticipated and discussed throughout Australia and around the world.

Read more about the 2014 winner…

Evie Wyld is just 34 years old and runs an independent bookstore in London, and has beat the likes of Australian favourite Tim Winton (four-time winner) to be awarded the 2014 Miles Franklin Award, the most prestigious literary award in Australia.

Wyld, the product of an Australian mother and a “very very British” father, said having two homes informs her work.

“It’s sort of where I write from – that feeling of homesickness, of yearning to be somewhere else,” she said.

“The thing that happens when you are from two places is you feel your roots elsewhere wherever you are. I think it’s a great thing not to feel completely stapled to the earth but it’s an interesting feeling.”

The state library’s Mitchell Librarian, Richard Neville, said the selection process – of which he had been a part of for five years – was more difficult than previous years.

“Sometimes a winner just selects itself,” he said. “This year it was a hard choice to get to the shortlist and once we had the shortlist it was very difficult to pick a winner”.