The Stella prize, Australia’s award for women and non-binary authors, has made history this year with a shortlist featuring only works by women of colour, for the first time since the award was established in 2013.
Announced on Tuesday morning, this year’s shortlist includes Darumbal and South Sea Islander journalist Amy McQuire’s essay collection, Black Witness (winner of the 2025 Victorian premier’s award for Indigenous writing), about the failures of mainstream media and power of Indigenous journalism; two-time Miles Franklin-winner Michelle de Kretser’s Theory & Practice, a reckoning with fiction, memoir and colonialism; and playwright, poet and author Samah Sabawi’s family memoir, Cactus Pear For My Beloved, tracing her roots from British-occupied Palestine through to contemporary Queensland.
Also on the shortlist are Santilla Chingaipe’s Black Convicts, excavating the history of slavery in Australia; Melanie Cheng’s novel The Burrow, about a grieving family who adopt a pet rabbit during Covid lockdown; and Jumaana Abdu’s debut novel, Translations, about a woman who moves with her young daughter to rural New South Wales to build a new life.
The Stella prize celebrates “original, excellent and engaging” fiction, nonfiction and poetry by Australian women and non-binary writers. The winner takes home $60,000, with each of the shortlisted writers receiving $4,000.
This year’s prize was judged by critic Astrid Edwards, Gudanji/Wakaja and Kalkadoon author Debra Dank, writer and critic Leah Jing McIntosh, author Yassmin Abdel-Magied, and journalist and author Rick Morton.
“These works showcase an incredible command of craft and understanding of our uncertain time,” Edwards, who chaired the panel, wrote in a statement. “They stood out to the judging panel for their integrity, compassion and fearlessness.”
The Stella prize winner will be awarded at a public ceremony at Carriageworks in Sydney on 23 May, as part of the Sydney writers’ festival. Last year the prize was won by Alexis Wright for her novel Praiseworthy.
