Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

Stella Prize 2014 shortlist announced

20 March 2014   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

The shortlist for the second Stella Prize has been announced.

The shortlisted titles are:

  • Burial Rites (Hannah Kent, Picador)
  • Night Games (Anna Krien, Black Inc.)
  • The Night Guest (Fiona McFarlane, Hamish Hamilton)
  • Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir (Kristina Olsson, UQP)
  • The Swan Book (Alexis Wright, Giramondo)
  • The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (Clare Wright, Text).

 

The winner of this year’s prize will be announced in Sydney on 29 April. The winner will receive a cash prize of $50,000.

Each of the finalists will also receive a cash prize of $2000 as a result of a donation from the Nelson Meers Foundation. Co-founder and trustee of the Nelson Meers Foundation Sam Meers said in a statement that the donation supports inaugural Stella Prize winner Carrie Tiffany’s decision to share some of her prize money with the other finalists last year. ‘We congratulate each of these authors on such a significant achievement [and] we hope that the prize money not only enhances this achievement, but will also provide the opportunity for a research trip, or some time away from paid work, to assist these talented writers to complete their next book,’ said Meers.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, 12 books were longlisted for the prize, which is presented for the best work of fiction or nonfiction by an Australian woman published in the previous calendar year. More than 160 entries were received for this year’s prize, which is judged by critic and writer Kerryn Goldsworthy (chair), journalist Annabel Crabb, author Brenda Walker, Avid Reader co-owner Fiona Stager and writer Tony Birch.

‘We are thrilled at the high calibre of this year’s shortlist: six impressive yet very different books, all meeting the Stella Prize criteria of excellent, engaging and original works,’ said Stella Prize executive director Aviva Tuffield. ‘We are so grateful to our judges for the dedication and rigour they have demonstrated in selecting this fabulous and diverse shortlist and we are delighted that the Nelson Meers Foundation has granted us prize money for this year’s shortlistees.’

The Stella Prize is named after Miles Franklin, whose first name was Stella, and was inspired by the UK Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, which was previously known as the Orange Prize for Fiction. Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites is also in the running for this year’s Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.

For more information about the Stella Prize and each of the shortlisted titles, visit the website here.

 

Tags:

Category: Local news