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Stella Prize 2023 longlist announced: ‘pathos, rage, and wild, joyful swagger’

Thursday, 2 March 2023   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The longlist for the $60,000 Stella Prize for women and non-binary writers has been announced.

The longlisted books are:

  • The Furies (Mandy Beaumont, Hachette)
  • Every Version of You (Grace Chan, Affirm)
  • We Come With This Place (Debra Dank, Echo)
  • big beautiful female theory (Eloise Grills, Affirm)
  • The Jaguar (Sarah Holland-Batt, UQP)
  • Hydra (Adriane Howell, Transit Lounge)
  • Jack of Hearts: QX11594 (Jackie Huggins & Ngaire Jarro, Magabala)
  • All That’s Left Unsaid (Tracey Lien, HQ Fiction)
  • Indelible City (Louisa Lim, Text)
  • Iris (Fiona Kelly McGregor, Picador)
  • Decadence (Thuy On, UWAP)
  • Bad Art Mother (Edwina Preston, Wakefield).

Judging panel chair Alice Pung said the longlist ‘can be defined by its risk-taking, innovation, and emotional punch’. The judges, which included Alison Whittaker, Astrid Edwards, Beejay Silcox and Jeff Sparrow, were ‘blown away by the creative risks taken by authors, poets, artists, and publishers.’

‘The Australian publishing industry has really come back to life after the pandemic’ said Pung. ‘Our longlist showcases the energy of this re-emergence. In these pages you will find pathos, rage, wild, joyful swagger, a mourning of our own mortality but also a celebration of our finite selves. We are beyond excited to share this list with readers,’ said Pung.

The 2023 longlist features novels, including both historical and speculative fiction, memoir and biography, journalism, one graphic novel, and two collections of poetry. The list includes four debut authors and half of the books on the list are published by small or independent publishers.

Increasing in value by $10,000 this year, the Stella Prize is awarded annually to one outstanding book deemed to be original, excellent, and engaging. Selected from over 200 entries, the 12 longlisted titles ‘are evidence of the extraordinary calibre of work being published by Australian women and non-binary writers,’ said the judges.

The 2023 shortlisted titles are due to be announced on 30 March and the winner will be announced on 27 April.

The winner of last year’s Stella Prize was Evelyn Araluen for Dropbear (UQP), which was the first poetry collection to win the award.

For more information about the Stella Prize and this year’s longlist, visit the Stella Prize website.

 

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Category: Awards Local news