Jaclyn Booton News Today

Editor, critic and poet Sarah Holland-Batt has taken out the 2023 Stella Prize for a tender but unflinching collection on mortality.

Earlier this month, a key commentator said the issue of women writers "not being taken seriously in this country" was "solved", and credited the Stella Prize. But Stella’s co-founder disagrees.

Six ‘culture shifting’ books have been shortlisted for the $60,000 Stella Prize, which recognises the best books by Australian women.

The six titles shortlisted for this year’s Stella Prize were all published by small and independent Australian publishers.

Evelyn Araluen has won the 2022 Stella Prize for her debut and explosive collection of poetry, Dropbear, published last year.

Stella's Forever Fund, had reached its endowment target of $3 million – securing prize money for the annual Stella Prize in perpetuity. 

This year’s Stella Prize shortlist consists of six experimental, genre-bending titles that confront issues of justice and truth-telling.

Paula McLean, a Sydney philanthropist and a previous Deputy Chair of the Stella prize, has donated $1 million to the Stella Prize.

Advertisement Novelist S.L. Lim has become the first non-binary writer to be in contention for one of Australia’s most important literary awards since changes were made to the eligibility requirements of the $50,000 Stella Prize for women’s writing. But Lim, who made the longlist with second novel Revenge: Murder in Three Parts, played down the significance of the inclusion which comes after the award changed entry guidelines to include women-identifying and non-binary writers in 2019. Lim...