Annie Ernaux is the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her autofiction masterpiece, The Years, has been called a modern In Search of Lost Time.
Evelyn Araluen’s award-winning book Dropbear is a sizzling collection of poetry and prose that is both deeply funny and deadly serious.
The shortlisted Stella authors: (clockwise from top left to right) Elfie Shiosaki, Evelyn Araluen, Anwen Crawford, Jennifer Down, Lee Lai and Eunice Andrada.
Stella Prize/The Conversation
For the first time, only one novel has been shortlisted, amid works of poetry, essays and graphic fiction. They tackle big issues - racism, grief, sexual abuse - but are leavened by joy.
Because bias is learned from a very early age, reading and learning about diverse experiences cannot start too soon. Here are five Australian picture books that centre on queer stories.
Early childhood books shortlisted over the years.
Helen Caple
A study shows there is a lack of ethnic and other diversity in award-winning early childhood picture books. This means our children are still getting a narrow window of the world.
Top selection: the 2020 Booker Prize longlist.
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize has always struggled with inclusivity.
This year’s Stella Prize shortlist is difficult to sum up or pin down - but the experiences of young people are a recurring theme.
Stella Prize/The Conversation
The six books shortlisted for this year’s Stella prize cover diverse subject matter and make risky aesthetic choices; they are serious and thoroughly unsentimental.
Behrouz Boochani won the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature, and the Prize for Non-Fiction, at the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
Amnesty International/AAP
Behrouz Boochani, an asylum seeker currently detained on Manus Island, has won Australia’s richest literary prize. The win commands the question, ‘what makes an Australian writer?’
Gerald Murnane has long been recognised as one of Australia’s finest writers.
Ben Denham