The Stella Prize longlist for 2022 has just been announced.
This is the 10th year of the prize, which is open to Australian women and non-binary writers. All genres, including fiction and non-fiction, are eligible, but this is the first year that poetry has been included.
There are four poetry collections on the longlist, as well as two short-story collections, two non-fiction books, an essay, a graphic novel and two novels.
Interestingly, out of the 12 books longlisted, seven are debuts and five are by First Nation writers.
This is what is on the list:
- Coming of Age in the War on Terror by Randa Abdel-Fattah (non-fiction, NewSouth Books)
- Take Care by Eunice Andrada (poetry, Giramondo Publishing)
- Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen (poetry, University of Queensland Press)
- She Is Haunted by Paige Clark (short stories, Allen & Unwin)
- No Document by Anwen Crawford (essay, Giramondo Publishing)
- Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down (novel. Text Publishing)
- Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss (novel, Simon & Schuster)
- Stone Fruit by Lee Lai (graphic novel, Fantagraphics)
- Permafrost by SJ Norman (short stories, University of Queensland Press)
- Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki (poetry, Magabala Books)
- The Open by Lucy Van (poetry, Cordite Books)
- Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego (non-fiction, University of Queensland Press)
I haven’t read anything on the list, which isn’t surprising seeing as my focus is generally on literary fiction and there’s only two novels on this list. I will wait until the shortlist is announced on 31 March before deciding whether to read the entire shortlist as I have occasionally done in other years.
The $50,000 prize will be announced on Thursday 28 April.
In the meantime, you can find out more about the longlist announcement here and read the judge’s report here.
Reading Matters 
A really wide ranging collection of books there Kim and great to see you reading all Australian literature in February. I look forward to seeing what you choose to read from this list once the shortlist is out. A few prize lists coming out in March to look forward to, even if watching from the sidelines.
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Well, reading all-Australian literature in February was more by accident than design… not sure what I will end up reading from this list. I already have “Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray” by Anita Heiss, which I will read for my #ReadingFirstNationsWriters project and I’m keen to read “Another Day in the Colony” by Chelsea Watego after Bill’s very positive review. But poetry really isn’t my thing and there’s an awful lot of poetry on this list.
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“There’s only two novels on this list.”
Yes *pout* and I’m only excited about one of them…
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It’s an interesting list…but poetry isn’t my bag… and god help the judges trying to compare oranges with lemons.
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That’s always the problem with this prize IMO.
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I’m not mad on poetry and I think devoting a third of the longlist to it was probably a bit heavy-handed.
I’ve tried to read the entire longlist in the past but unlikely to this year – I’ve lost my reading groove a little lately – will get it back but I suspect not in time to get through the longlist.
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I’m like you.
All this poetry, did make me wonder what poetry prizes there are in Australia?
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I’m not madly keen on poetry, either (and I’ve got two poetry books to read this month!!) but I do have Another Day in the Colony, so that’s exciting!
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Oh, did Bill send you that book? I’m kicking myself I didn’t buy it when I had the chance… I bought something else that did not work for me and which I have abandoned… but definitely want to read this one, seeing as it would also fit in with my Reading First Nation Writers project.
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