Each year, The Stella Prize honours writing by women. Good. We’ve come a long way. We’ve a long way to go.
The 2021 shortlist encompasses contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction, and undertakes impressive trapeze acts across genre boundaries.
The books investigate the riddle of familial duty and the cost of patriarchy; Australia’s racist colonial history; species-ism and humanity as it exists within the natural world; the devastating impact of sexual violence for victims as well as criminal justice professionals; the trauma associated with physical violence inflicted upon women.
The authors write about sacrifice, grief, mental illness, power, privilege and connectivity.