Stella Prize

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]

  1. ^ Alison Flood (4 May 2011). "Australian 'Orange prize' to promote women writers' status". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 July 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  2. ^ Elizabeth Webby, writing at the Stellas, Miles Franklin and Kibble awards, The Conversation, 28 April 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014
  3. ^ "Stella Prize website". Archived from the original on 5 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  4. ^ Alison Flood (2 November 2012). "Canada and Australia launch women's literary prizes". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  5. ^ Coslovich, Gabriella (29 August 2011). "Female-only literary prize puts gender on the agenda". Melbourne: The Age. Archived from the original on 1 September 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  6. ^ Erin Handley, The problem with the Stella Prize. [1] Archived 8 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine, The Age, 6 May 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014
  7. ^ "2021 Stella Prize Guidelines". The Stella Prize. Archived from the original on 11 March 2021. Retrieved 4 March 2021.