2024 Stella Prize winner announcement
Stella is delighted to announce Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy as the winner of the 2024 Stella Prize.
Stella is pleased to announce Alexis Wright’s genre-bending fourth novel Praiseworthy (Giramondo Publishing), as the winner of the twelfth annual Stella Prize.
On Thursday 2 May, the winner of the 2024 Stella Prize was announced at an exclusive event at State Library Victoria which was also broadcasted via our YouTube channel.
Journalist, author and television presenter Virginia Trioli hosted the evening. The prize was presented by the artistic director of Canberra Writers Festival and the 2024 Stella Prize Chair of Judges, Beejay Silcox.
The $60,000 Stella Prize was supported by the Stella Forever Fund and was awarded to Alexis Wright for Praiseworthy, her fourth novel. This is the second time that Wright wins the Stella Prize. She is the first writer to win the Stella Prize twice.
The 2024 Stella Prize judging panel described the winning book as:
… Fierce and gloriously funny, Praiseworthy is a genre-defiant epic of climate catastrophe proportions. Part manifesto, part indictment, Alexis Wright’s real-life frustration at the indignities of the Anthropocene stalk the pages of this, her fourth novel. Fierce and gloriously funny, Praiseworthy is a genre-defiant epic of climate catastrophe proportions. Part manifesto, part indictment, Alexis Wright’s real-life frustration at the indignities of the Anthropocene stalk the pages of this, her fourth novel.
Chair of the 2024 Stella Prize Judges, Beejay Silcox, said of the winning book:
Praiseworthy is mighty in every conceivable way: mighty of scope, mighty of fury, mighty of craft, mighty of humour, mighty of language, mighty of heart. Praiseworthy is not only a great Australian novel – perhaps the great Australian novel – it is also a great Waanyi novel. And it is written in the wild hope that, one day, all Australian readers might understand just what that means. I do not understand. Not yet. But I can feel history calling to me in these pages. Calling to all of us. Imagine if we listened.
Of winning this year’s prize, Alexis Wright said:
I do not write expecting to win prizes. In the Aboriginal world we work very hard, but that often does not equate to great success – or accolades. My work has flowed from a commitment I made long ago to always challenge myself as a writer, to take risks and explore the world through my imagination. My main motivation with Praiseworthy was to complete the book and rise to the challenges it presented.
I have the greatest respect for the work of the Stella, and its commitment to nurturing and promoting the work of women writers in this continent. This makes me feel sure that all of the authors on the longlist and shortlist will grow in strength and endurance in the years to come.
The 2025 Stella Prize will open entries in late August 2024. Subscribe to our newsletter to be one of the first to get the news.
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