Stella Prize celebrates women’s writing

The Life To Come by Michelle De Kretser

The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing, and an organisation that champions cultural change. The 2018 longlist showcases the power and diversity of writing by women in Australia. The determination required to create change, and the political necessity of telling our own stories, shines through in the fiction and nonfiction of this year’s list. Titles on this year’s longlist include The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser; The Choke by Sophie Laguna; The Fish Girl by Mirandi Riwoe and The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar.

The Stella Prize website includes a list of Read Up titles to encourage reading towards empowerment. They are a map for young people aged 15–24 to help guide their thinking about things that matter: sexuality, relationships, gender, minds and bodies, and diverse cultures.

The Choke by Sofie Laguna

There’s a great list of titles on the Respectful Relationships link which are about the importance of respect, whether at school or work; within families, friendships and romances; and regardless of whether the relationships are romantic or platonic, straight or queer.

The Fish Girl by Mirandi Riwoe

The titles on this list explore what can happen when respect is absent. The texts are challenging and confronting at times, as they address themes of family violence and intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and the cultural norms and gender inequalities that can lead to and reinforce such behaviours.

Blood by Tony Birch

Some of the titles on the list include Blood by Tony Birch; Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty; Storm and Grace by Kathryn Heyman and The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood. Why not share the Respectful Relationships book list with your readers this International Women’s Day?

Storm and Grace by Kathryn Heyman

You can visit the Stella Prize webpages for more information on the longlisted titles and to find more booklists. The shortlist will be announced on International Women’s Day, Thursday 8 March, and the 2018 Stella Prize winner will be announced on Thursday 12 April.