Announcing The Stella Prize
2018 Longlist
Stella is delighted to announce the 2018 Stella Prize longlist and, for the very first time, $1000 in prize money for each longlisted author.
In a year when women's voices are demanding to be heard, the 2018 Stella Prize longlist showcases the power and diversity of writing by women in Australia.
The 2018 Stella Prize longlist is:
- The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar (Wild Dingo Press)
- A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work by Bernadette Brennan (Text Publishing)
- Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness by Kate Cole-Adams (Text Publishing)
- Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman (Hachette Australia)
- The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin)
- This Water: Five Tales by Beverley Farmer (Giramondo)
- The Green Bell: A Memoir of Love, Madness and Poetry by Paula Keogh (Affirm Press)
- An Uncertain Grace by Krissy Kneen (Text Publishing)
- The Choke by Sofie Laguna (Allen & Unwin)
- Martin Sharp: His Life and Times by Joyce Morgan (Allen & Unwin)
- The Fish Girl by Mirandi Riwoe (Seizure)
- Tracker by Alexis Wright (Giramondo)
From more than 170 entries, this year's Stella Prize judges – co-owner of the award-winning bookshop Avid Reader Fiona Stager (Chair); author Julie Koh; editor and award-winning writer and poet Ellen van Neerven; writer and critic James Ley; and writer, editor and publisher Louise Swinn – selected these 12 outstanding books for the longlist.
Chair of the 2018 Stella Prize judging panel, Fiona Stager, says:
'Our longlist challenges the reader to experience the pleasures of reading different forms of writing: speculative fiction, novella, memoir, biography, non-narrative nonfiction, history, short stories and work in translation. Included on the longlist are authors who have inverted genres through imaginative and subversive literary techniques and by incorporating traditional storytelling practices of mythology and magic realism. Reflected also is the power of contemporary Aboriginal storytelling as well as the truly international life experiences of our writers as we travel with characters through Indonesia, Iran and Sri Lanka. Other selected titles are books where science and art intersect to provoke solutions to the challenges facing society today.'
Read the full judges' report on The Stella Prize website.
This year, for the first time ever, each longlisted author receives $1000 in prize money, courtesy of the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
The Copyright Agency's CEO, Adam Suckling, comments, 'The Copyright Agency is delighted to support Australia's leading women writers and the Stella Prize with $60,000 for the next three years from our Cultural Fund. The Stella Prize acknowledges great women writers; it gives authors career-making exposure, helps them reach existing readers and find new ones, and it also supports writers practically, with valuable income. Big congratulations to all of the longlisted writers.'
The judges have a difficult task ahead of them, as they narrow down this outstanding longlist to a shortlist. The shortlist will be announced at 12pm AEDT on Thursday 8 March.