Last week on Book Chat (link here http://wp.me/p4G9hc-6l) I wrote about my excitement regarding the announcement of the 2015 long list for the Stella Prize, a new award dedicated to celebrating women’s writing in Australia. It was on International Women’s Day in 2011 that the idea for this prize emerged during discussions on the underrepresentation of women writers in the Australian print media, both as writers and reviewers. Their aim is to celebrate the best Australian female fiction or non-fiction writers from the previous calendar year and support their writing and celebrate their views, ideas and creativity.
After a bad run with my reading, I have decided to make my way through many of the titles on the long list and review each one! I have always had an interesting relationship with books that have been nominated or been successful in winning such prestigious awards. There have been many I have disliked or not understood; I find there is often a sense of disappointment after reading such books… hype can do terrible things to ones expectations. Yes, I should know better!
The Stella Prize – part of the 2015 long list…
Thankfully I already owned a few of the books and it was easy enough to get the others through work. I have read part of Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey but I won’t be finishing it or writing it a review – it just wasn’t my thing. However, I am really looking forward to reading the following list:
The Strays by Emily Bitto (Affirm Press)
Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett (Penguin)
The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna (Allen & Unwin)
The Golden Age by Joan London (Random House)
Laurinda by Alice Pung (Black Inc)
Nest by Inga Simpson (Hachette)
Heat and Light by Ellen van Neerven (UQP)
In My Mother’s Hands by Biff Ward (Allen & Unwin)
I can’t wait! The first book will be the The Strays – it’s the one I am looking forward to the most!
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