Showing all posts about Australian literature
Stella Prize longlist 2022, a good year for poetry
1 March 2022
Unlike the Miles Franklin Literary Award, which honours only works of fiction by Australian writers, the Stella Prize recognises writing across all genres, be it fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, graphic novels, biographies, historical writing, short story collections, novellas, and poetry.
In addition to the fiction and non-fiction works named on the Stella Prize longlist for 2022, Stone Fruit by Montreal, Canada based Australian cartoonist Lee Lai becomes the first graphic novel to be included on the longlist.
But it is the poets who have a made a mark this year, claiming four of the twelve slots on the longlist. Take Care by Eunice Andrada, Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen (cover featured above), Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki, and The Open by Lucy Van, are all in contention for the prize.
If one of the poetry titles wins, or Lai’s graphic novel, it will be a first for the Stella. A shortlist consisting of six titles will be unveiled on 31 March 2022.
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Australian literature, graphic novels, literary awards, poetry, Stella Prize
The 2022 Stella Prize longlist
28 February 2022
The 2022 Stella Prize longlist was announced today, and includes the following twelve books:
- Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego
- The Open by Lucy Van
- Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki
- Permafrost by SJ Norman
- Stone Fruit by Lee Lai
- Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss
- Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
- No Document by Anwen Crawford
- She Is Haunted by Paige Clark
- Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen
- Take Care by Eunice Andrada
- Coming of Age in the War on Terror by Randa Abdel-Fattah
The Stella Prize, which was established in 2013, is a literary award celebrating the writing of Australian women. The shortlist will be announced on 31 March 2022.
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Australian literature, literary awards, Stella Prize
Tim Winton critical of fossil fuel industry arts sponsorship
28 February 2022
Perth based Australian writer Tim Winton, and four times Miles Franklin Award winner, has spoken out against the over reliance the local arts community has on sponsorship from the fossil fuel industry, during a speech at Perth festival’s Writers Weekend.
“I do want us to acknowledge how things still work here … how captive [the arts and cultural sectors] are,” he told the Writers Weekend audience. “I suspect that to some of the folks who were involved in decisions around that production, all of them good people I’m sure, the dissonance just wasn’t audible. And that just shows you how normal it is, how safe the fossil giants still feel here in the wild west.”
Winton singled out a performance of Become Ocean, an orchestral composition by John Luther Adams, scheduled for Saturday 5 March at the Festival, which has already attracted the ire of a local activist arts group on account of sponsorship arrangements for the performance.
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Australian literature, Tim Winton
Megan Albany speaks with Dora Papas
21 February 2022
Megan Albany, whose debut novel The Very Last List of Vivian Walker, I wrote about the week before last, will be in conversation with Dora Papas, editor of Better Homes and Gardens, as part of the Books & Bubbles series of virtual events, this Wednesday, 23 February 2022, at 6:30PM (ADST).
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Australian literature, Megan Albany
This Devastating Fever, a new novel by Sophie Cunningham
19 February 2022
Melbourne based Australian author Sophie Cunningham is set to publish This Devastating Fever, her first novel in fifteen years in September 2022, according to Ultimo Press. In addition to her writing and teaching work, Cunningham is also one of the founders of the Stella Prize, an award honouring the work of Australian women writers.
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Australian literature, novels, Sophie Cunningham
Vale John Bryson Australian author
18 February 2022
Sydney based Australian author John Bryson died earlier this month, at the age of 86. Bryson, a former lawyer, wrote several books, including Evil Angels: The Case of Lindy Chamberlain in 1987, a title that proved instrumental in exonerating Lindy Chamberlain, who had been wrongly convicted of murdering her baby daughter in 1980.
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Australian literature, John Bryson
Positive representations of disabled people in Australian fiction
7 January 2022
Social Queue by Kay Kerr, and Stars In Their Eyes, a graphic novel by Jessica Walton and Aśka, are among works of fiction by Australian authors featuring central characters with disabilities. In Social Queue, Kerr’s autistic protagonist Zoe navigates the world of dating, while in Stars In Their Eyes, queer disabled teen, Maisie, finds love at a fan convention. These works are welcome: in the past people with disabilities who have been part of a story have often assumed the antagonist’s role.
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Australian literature, writing
Adam Thompson sells his wine rack and other stories
20 December 2021
Good Weekend magazine asked nine Australian novelists to write about the year that has been. Tasmanian author Adam Thompson, whose debut book Born Into This, was published this year, wrote about selling his now disused wine-rack, a story that resonated with me, as I too no longer possess one.
It took two years to get rid of all the grog – and the lovely wine rack. I kept it close at hand to remind myself that it’s my choice not to drink, because I could, at any moment, if I wanted. I don’t need that reminder any more. And I’ll try to forget the anniversary, too. Let it all slip by, content in the knowledge that I’ve moved on.
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Adam Thompson, Australian literature
Minds Shine Bright writing competition 2022
20 December 2021
Entries are open for the Minds Shine Bright writing competition, until Monday 28 February, 2022. An initiative created by Melbourne based Australian writer and film maker Amanda Scotney, Minds Shine Bright seeks to encourage excellence in writing, particularly fiction. If you’re a writer of fiction, poetry, or script-writing, looking for some recognition, and a financial incentive, this may be the opportunity you’re looking for.
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Australian literature, fiction, writing
Another win for Amanda Lohrey’s novel The Labyrinth
16 December 2021
It’s been a good year for Tasmania based Australian author Amanda Lohrey. In July her novel The Labyrinth won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and yesterday the same novel was named winner of The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for 2021, in the fiction category, with the judges describing the novel as a work of considerable literary artistry.
‘The Labyrinth’ is shadowed and haunted by strangeness. It is a novel in high realist mode that also has romance elements, if only in the way it encompasses a tragicomic mood and a certain formal audacity that brings to mind the moodiness and restless shifts of late Shakespeare. ‘The Labyrinth’ has a gravity that outstares everything that may seem grey or gaunt in a literary endeavour where autumn seems to sink to midwinter. It is a work of considerable literary artistry.
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