McGregor

• The celebration was made possible with support from sponsors, including Visionary Presenting Sponsor Sharon Dupont McCord, Bright Future Sponsor The Burton Family Foundation, and many others — such as Helios Education Foundation, Robert and Ruth McGregor, National Bank of Arizona, and SRP.
• As part of the festivities, Governor Katie Hobbs issued an official proclamation that recognizes October 25, 2023, as Center for the Future of Arizona Day.
• The proclamation celebrates CFA's 20 years of "visionary leadership," of "fostering a resilient and dynamic Arizona," and of "committing to bringing people together to build a stronger and brighter future."
• "To determine where Arizonans stand and whether Arizonans, in fact, share a vision, CFA turned not to a panel of experts or politicians but to the people of Arizona," McGregor said.

• Crusoe Energy Systems LLC (“Crusoe”) announced today that Patrick McGregor has joined the company as Chief Product Officer.
• In his new role, McGregor will be charged with leading all product initiatives for data centers, artificial intelligence, cloud software, and bitcoin mining, which includes product strategy, product definition, product design, and product execution.
• Prior to joining Crusoe, McGregor was head of product for web3 developer platforms at Coinbase, where he built the foundational technologies that Coinbase and the entire crypto ecosystem rely upon.
• “We’re thrilled to have Patrick onboard to build world-class products that enable the next wave of computing led innovations,” said Crusoe’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Chase Lochmiller.

• SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ewan McGregor, who has played some of the most iconic roles in pop culture history, will appear at FAN EXPO San Francisco , November 24 - 26, 2023, at Moscone Center West.
• McGregor joins an impressive celebrity lineup at FAN EXPO San Francisco.
• To see the growing guest list, view the schedule, and order tickets to FAN EXPO San Francisco, go to fanexposanfrancisco.com .
• WHEN: FAN EXPO San Francisco runs Friday, November 24 - Sunday,
  WHERE: Moscone Center West is located at 800 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94103
  COST: Adult tickets are priced from $25-$349.

This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist takes us from Sydney’s criminal underclass in the 1930s and the quiet waters of rural Tasmania in the 1940s to shopping for design objects in contemporary Japan. Its styles range from the sparse, economical prose of the experimental novella to an intricately plotted page-turner. And the six shortlisted writers include a debut novelist and a Miles Franklin veteran; just one is male-identifying.

Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregor

• McGregor is the most experienced writer on the shortlist: Iris is her eighth book and her accolades include a Steele Rudd Award and an Age Book of the Year (Indelible Ink).
• McGregor knows Sydney well – especially its convoluted history of colonialism, repression and disobedience.
• Her inspired decision to fictionalise the real-life Iris Webber (1906-1953) was no doubt influenced by the extraordinary archives of the Sydney Police photographs (1912-1948).
• Read more:
  In Iris, Fiona Kelly McGregor recreates the criminal underworld of Depression-era Sydney

Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au

• Jessica Au’s debut was much anticipated: its manuscript won the inaugural international $US100,000 The Novel Prize, trumping 1500 entries.
• It’s a credit to Au that she lets the reader sit with this at the conclusion: nothing feels artificially resolved.
• Read more:
  The responsibilities of being: Jessica Au's precise, poetic meditation on mothers and daughters

Limberlost by Robbie Arnott

• Robbie Arnott is the only one of these authors to have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin before – for his second novel, The Rain Heron (2020), which won The Age Book of the Year award.
• Arnott is also the only male-identifying author on this shortlist and masculinity is a central theme.
• Read more:
  Robbie Arnott's eco-fiction uses myth and metaphor to depict a wounded world

Hopeless Kingdom by Kgshak Akec

• Kgshak Akec, a creative writing student at Deakin University, is the youngest writer on this shortlist, at 26.
• Akec’s debut is inspired by her family’s migration from South Sudan to Australia via Egypt, during the early 2000s.
• The book brims with authentic, memorable characters and relationships between family and friends that are complex and subtly complicated.

The Lovers by Yumna Kassab

• This novella’s limited dramatic narrative scale permits the author a sophisticated attention to the poetics of representation: perhaps the book’s key achievement.
• Amir and Jamila, the lovers of the title, unite almost exclusively at nighttime.
• She artfully employs stories within stories: tiny parables that frame or commentate on the larger story of the lovers and their fate.
• Read more:
  Colonial and nationalist myths are recast in Yumna Kassab's Australiana

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

• Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is mostly set in a Western Sydney nursing home, run by and for a Sri Lankan Tamil community.
• Shankari Chandran says the novel was inspired and informed by regular visits to her grandmother.
• “As she was walking, she’d be talking, and telling us stories about her life, of her childhood, of her marriage, her migration.” Chandran is a mid-career author whose achievements are gradually accumulating.