What role do you believe literary awards like the Stella Prize play in sparking conversations and shaping the literary canon?

That shiny sticker on the front of a book jacket holds so much cultural capital, for writers and readers alike. Literary awards help put books and the riches of storytelling into everyday conversations. Nine out of ten conversations I have about books start with someone asking what I think about a big international literary award. What this says to me is that people care more about books and storylines than they realize. And I think people also want to know what “expert” readers think about what makes a book important, and why. Whether readers respond to big prize announcements with excitement or scepticism it tells me that books are still important as conduits for big cultural stories. Books remain a crucial gauge of what preoccupies us and worries us most about contemporary society. Plus literary awards connect writing in the present to literary histories. We’re not just reading a single book – we’re reading all the books and stories a writer has been shaped and influenced by. Even when judges pay attention to a work of literature because it’s avant-garde and boundary-breaking, we’re still actively engaging with what the rules are and what counts as mainstream literary culture. Being the Chair of Judges for a major literary award is becoming immersed in the imaginative life of the present, revisiting imaginative lives from the past and of course shaping what’s to come.

How will you prepare yourself to read a large volume of work fairly and thoroughly over the judging period?

I’m a literature academic, and I focus on a period of history — the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries — when books in English tend to be very long and not at all easy to read. I also co-host a podcast about the secret lives of classic books, and for that we read a novel every week, plus lots of other material so that we’ve researched and prepared the topic thoroughly. So I’ve trained over the last thirty years to read quite rapidly while also absorbing complex information both in terms of narrative and technique. That said, this is a demanding role because it’s so important to read carefully and rigorously, and really honor what’s new and creatively compelling in Australian women’s and non-binary writing. To read well you often have to set aside your training and preconceptions and come to it with a totally fresh mind.