The Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize for Fiction). [1]
The award derives its name from the author Miles Franklin, whose full name was "Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin." [2]
It was established by a group of 11 Australian women writers, editors, publishers and booksellers who became concerned about the poor representation of books by women in Australia's top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award. [3] [4]
"After a rapid acceleration in women's rights in the '70s and '80s, things have started to go backwards," Sophie Cunningham said in a keynote address at the 2011 Melbourne Writers' Festival. "Women continue to be marginalised in Australian culture and the arts sector – which likes to pride itself on its liberal values – is, in fact, complacent. Women are much less likely to win literary awards, to write reviews of books, or have their books reviewed. This, despite the fact they write about half the books published." [5]
Some commentators, such as Erin Handley writing in The Age , have said that fiction and non-fiction are different genres that should be judged separately, highlighting that this is an issue for the Stella Prize. But this is rejected by Dr. Kerryn Goldsworthy, the chair of the Stella judging panel, who stated that comparing fiction and non-fiction is "no harder than comparing books in general," and that "excellence is achievable in any form." [6]
The 2021 Stella Prize guidelines opened entries to books by non-binary as well as women writers. [7]
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | Carrie Tiffany | Mateship with Birds | Winner | [8] [9] [10] |
Courtney Collins | The Burial | Shortlist | [11] | |
Michelle de Kretser | Questions of Travel | |||
Lisa Jacobson | The Sunlit Zone | |||
Cate Kennedy | Like a House on Fire | |||
Margo Lanagan | Sea Hearts | |||
Romy Ash | Floundering | Longlist | [12] | |
Dylan Coleman | Mazin Grace | |||
Robin de Crespigny | The People Smuggler | |||
Amy Espeseth | Sufficient Grace | |||
Patti Miller | The Mind of a Thief | |||
Stephanie Radok | An Opening | |||
2014 | Clare Wright | The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka | Winner | [13] [9] [14] |
Hannah Kent | Burial Rites | Shortlist | [15] [16] | |
Anna Krien | Night Games: Sex, Power and Sport | |||
Fiona McFarlane | The Night Guest | |||
Kristina Olsson | Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir | |||
Alexis Wright | The Swan Book | |||
Debra Adelaide | Letter to George Clooney | Longlist | [17] | |
Gabrielle Carey | Moving Among Strangers: Randolph Stow and My Family | |||
Melissa Lucashenko | Mullumbimby | |||
Anne Summers | The Misogyny Factor | |||
Helen Trinca | Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John | |||
Evie Wyld | All the Birds, Singing | |||
2015 | Emily Bitto | The Strays | Winner | [18] [9] |
Maxine Beneba Clarke | Foreign Soil | Shortlist | [19] [20] | |
Christine Kenneally | The Invisible History of the Human Race | |||
Sofie Laguna | The Eye of the Sheep | |||
Joan London | The Golden Age | |||
Ellen van Neerven | Heat and Light | |||
Ceridwen Dovey | Only the Animals | Longlist | [21] | |
Helen Garner | This House of Grief | |||
Sonya Hartnett | Golden Boys | |||
Alice Pung | Laurinda | |||
Inga Simpson | Nest | |||
Biff Ward | In My Mother’s Hands | |||
2016 | Charlotte Wood | The Natural Way of Things | Winner | [22] [23] [9] [24] |
Tegan Bennett Daylight | Six Bedrooms | Shortlist | [25] [26] | |
Peggy Frew | Hope Farm | |||
Elizabeth Harrower | A Few Days in the Country: And Other Stories | |||
Mireille Juchau | The World Without Us | |||
Fiona Wright | Small Acts of Disappearance: Essays on Hunger | |||
Debra Adelaide | The Women's Pages | Longlist | [27] | |
Stephanie Bishop | The Other Side of the World | |||
Jen Craig | Panthers and the Museum of Fire | |||
Gail Jones | A Guide to Berlin | |||
Amanda Lohrey | A Short History of Richard Kline | |||
Alice Robinson | Anchor Point | |||
2017 | Heather Rose | The Museum of Modern Love | Winner | [28] [9] [29] |
Georgia Blain | Between a Wolf and a Dog | Shortlist | [30] [31] | |
Maxine Beneba Clarke | The Hate Race | |||
Catherine de Saint Phalle | Poum and Alexandre | |||
Emily Maguire | An Isolated Incident | |||
Cory Taylor | Dying: A Memoir | |||
Julia Baird | Victoria: The Queen | Longlist | [32] | |
Madeline Gleeson | Offshore: Behind the Wire on Manus and Nauru | |||
Julia Leigh | Avalanche: A love story | |||
Fiona McFarlane | The High Places | |||
Elspeth Muir | Wasted: A story of alcohol, grief and a death in Brisbane | |||
Sonya Voumard | The Media and the Massacre: Port Arthur 1996-2016 | |||
2018 | Alexis Wright | Tracker | Winner | [33] [9] [34] |
Shokoofeh Azar | The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree | Shortlist | [35] [36] | |
Claire G. Coleman | Terra Nullius | |||
Michelle de Kretser | The Life to Come | |||
Krissy Kneen | An Uncertain Grace | |||
Mirandi Riwoe | The Fish Girl | |||
Bernadette Brennan | A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work | Longlist | [37] | |
Kate Cole-Adams | Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness | |||
Beverley Farmer | This Water: Five Tales | |||
Paula Keogh | The Green Bell: A Memoir of Love, Madness and Poetry | |||
Sofie Laguna | The Choke | |||
Joyce Morgan | Martin Sharp: His Life and Times | |||
2019 | Vicki Laveau-Harvie | The Erratics | Winner | [38] [9] [39] [40] |
Jenny Ackland | Little Gods | Shortlist | [41] [42] | |
Enza Gandolfo | The Bridge | [43] [41] [42] | ||
Jamie Marina Lau | Pink Mountain on Locust Island | [41] [42] | ||
Melissa Lucashenko | Too Much Lip | [44] [41] [42] | ||
Maria Tumarkin | Axiomatic | [41] [42] | ||
Stephanie Bishop | Man out of Time | Longlist | [45] | |
Belinda Castles | Bluebottle | |||
Chloe Hooper | The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire | |||
Gail Jones | The Death of Noah Glass | |||
Bri Lee | Eggshell Skull | |||
Fiona Wright | The World Was Whole | |||
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Jess Hill | See What You Made Me Do | Winner | [46] [9] [47] |
Caro Llewellyn | Diving into Glass | Shortlist | [48] [49] [50] | |
Favel Parrett | There Was Still Love | |||
Josephine Rowe | Here Until August | |||
Tara June Winch | The Yield | |||
Charlotte Wood | The Weekend | |||
Joey Bui | Lucky Ticket | Longlist | [51] | |
Yumna Kassab | The House of Youssef | |||
Mandy Ord | When One Person Dies the Whole World is Over | |||
Vikki Wakefield | This is How We Change the Ending | |||
Sally Young | Paper Emperors | |||
Gay'wu Group of Women | Songspirals | |||
2021 | Evie Wyld | The Bass Rock | Winner | [52] [53] [54] [9] |
Rebecca Giggs | Fathoms: The World in the Whale | Shortlist | [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] | |
S. L. Lim | Revenge: Murder in Three Parts | |||
Laura Jean McKay | The Animals in That Country | |||
Louise Milligan | Witness | |||
Mirandi Riwoe | Stone Sky Gold Mountain | |||
Cath Moore | Metal Fish, Falling Snow | Longlist | [60] | |
Intan Paramaditha | The Wandering | |||
Ellena Savage | Blueberries | |||
Nardi Simpson | Song of the Crocodile | |||
Elizabeth Tan | Smart Ovens for Lonely People | |||
Jessie Tu | A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing | |||
2022 | Evelyn Araluen | Dropbear | Winner | [61] [62] [63] [64] |
Eunice Andrada | Take Care | Shortlist | [65] [66] [67] | |
Anwen Crawford | No Document | |||
Jennifer Down | Bodies of Light | |||
Lee Lai | Stone Fruit | |||
Elfie Shiosaki | Homecoming | |||
Randa Abdel-Fattah | Coming of Age in the War on Terror | Longlist | [68] | |
Paige Clark | She Is Haunted | |||
Anita Heiss | Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray | |||
SJ Norman | Permafrost | |||
Lucy Van | The Open | |||
Chelsea Watego | Another Day in the Colony | |||
2023 | Sarah Holland-Batt | The Jaguar | Winner | [69] |
Debra Dank | We Come With This Place | Shortlist | [70] | |
Eloise Grills | big beautiful female theory | |||
Adriane Howell | Hydra | |||
Louisa Lim | Indelible City | |||
Edwina Preston | Bad Art Mother | |||
Mandy Beaumont | The Furies | Longlist | [71] | |
Grace Chan | Every Version of You | |||
Jackie Huggins & Ngaire Jarro | Jack of Hearts: QX11594 | |||
Tracey Lien | All That's Left Unsaid | |||
Fiona Kelly McGregor | Iris | |||
Thuy On | Decadence | |||
2024 | Alexis Wright | Praiseworthy | Winner | [72] |
Katia Ariel | The Swift Dark Tide | Shortlist | [73] | |
Katherine Brabon | Body Friend | |||
Emily O'Grady | Feast | |||
Sanya Rushdie | Hospital | |||
Hayley Singer | Abandon Every Hope: Essays for the Dead | |||
Stephanie Bishop | The Anniversary | Longlist | [74] | |
Ali Cobby Eckermann | She Is the Earth | |||
Melissa Lucashenko | Edenglassie | |||
Maggie MacKellar | Graft: Motherhood, family and a year on the land | |||
Kate Mildenhall | The Hummingbird Effect | |||
Laura Elizabeth Woollett | West Girls | |||
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