Foster__David Australian author David Foster has been awarded the Patrick White Literary Award for his contribution to Australian literature over the past four decades.

Foster, who won the Miles Franklin in 1997 with his novel The Glade within the Grove has long been praised one of Australian's most original writers and has published more than twelve novels, in addition to a range of other works.

The Patrick White Literary Award (worth $18,000) was set up by Patrick White himself with the money he received along with his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973, to recognise Australian writers who have made a significant but inadequately recognised contribution to Australian literature.

David Foster's most recent novel is Sons of the Rumour - is a retelling of the legend of King Shahrban of Persia who, furious at his wife's infidelity, decided to marry and then behead a fresh virgin every day.