2027 Judges
2027 Stella Prize Judges
Beejay Silcox is a book critic. Her work appears in high-profile publications across three continents, and is celebrated for its resolute – some might say foolhardy – honesty. She has been described as “the most significant new Australian critic in decades”. Beyond the page, she is a literary polymath: interviewer, manuscript doctor, festival programmer, and award-winning creative writing educator. Beejay has stories to tell; she eloped to Las Vegas, escaped quicksand, and was once rescued from a picnic at Hanging Rock. Beejay is making her joyful return to Stella judging after chairing the prize in 2024.
Tim Jarvis is the director of Fullers Bookshop in Hobart, where he has been a bookseller for more than a decade. He is an inaugural member of the Writing Australia Council, and also serves on the board of the Australian Booksellers Association.
Michaela Kalowski is an interviewer, moderator & curator for writers and ideas festivals. Highlight interviews include Margaret Atwood, Zadie Smith, Tim Winton, Mieko Kawakami & Stan Grant. She was curator of Big Weekend of Books, ABC RN’s annual on-air writers’ festival for five years until it finished. She produces & hosts a monthly books conversation event for Petersham Bowling Club. Michaela has conducted radio interviews and presented programs across ABC radio & TV including hosting a regular book recommendation spot on ABC TV Weekend Breakfast. In 2022 she was curator of International Author events for Brisbane Writers Festival. She’s produced and facilitated panels with academics, writers and thinkers in Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane as well as for numerous online events and she regularly programs public discussions for libraries in NSW. She’s co-presenter & co-writer of a two-part podcast for ABC RN, tracing part of her family’s history, called Laya’s Way Home.
Hannah Kent is an author and screenwriter. Her first novel, Burial Rites (2013), was translated into over 30 languages and won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, and the Victorian Premier’s People’s Choice Award. It was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Stella Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Burial Rites was voted in at number 6 in the 2025 ABC Radio National Top 100 Books Countdown.
Hannah’s second novel, The Good People (2016), was translated into 10 languages and shortlisted for the Walter Scott Award, the Indie Books Award for Literary Fiction, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and the Readings Prize. Devotion (2021) won Booktopia’s Favourite Australian Book, was shortlisted for an Indie Book Award and longlisted for the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year.
Hannah’s original feature film, Run Rabbit Run, starring Sarah Snook (Succession) and directed by Daina Reid (The Handmaid’s Tale), premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Hannah is also screenwriting the feature film adaptations of The Good People (Aquarius Productions) and Devotion (Dollhouse Pictures).
Hannah’s most recent book is the memoir Always Home, Always Homesick (2025), which won the Indie Book Award for Non-Fiction and the ABA BookData Adult Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the ABIA Biography of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction.
Hannah is the co-founder of Kill Your Darlings, a regular guest reviewer on ABC Radio National’s Bookshelf Program and has written for The New York Times, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin and LitHub, amongst others. She lives and works on Peramangk and Kaurna Country.
Jasmin McGaughey is a Torres Strait Islander and African American writer and editor. She is the author of Ash Barty’s collection of children’s books (illustrated by Jade Goodwin) and Mary Fowler’s children’s books (illustrated by Cate James). Jasmin is a black&write! editor alum, and has written for Overland, Kill Your Darlings, SBS Voices and Griffith Review and co-edited Words to Sing the World Alive. Her debut YA book, Moonlight and Dust, was shortlisted for the 2025 VPLAs.
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