Judges
2024 Stella Prize Judges
Cheryl (she/her/they/them) is from the Kooma and Nguri Nations in western and central Queensland. The 2022 winner of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize, Cheryl has performed at the Brisbane and Byron Writers Festivals, Queensland Poetry Festival and with Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra. Cheryl is currently working on a children’s book based on her poetry. It will be published by UQP in 2024. She has served on many arts boards, including the Brisbane Writers Festival, where she established and chaired the First Nations Advisory Council.
Eleanor (she/her/they/them) is a Filipino-Australian poet, performer, arts producer, and advocate. Eleanor is the author of Gravidity and Parity (Vagabond Press), which was Highly Commended in the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) Mary Gilmore Award 2022, and winner of Small Press Network Book of the Year 2022. She is also Chair of Peril magazine, which is dedicated to Asian-Australian arts and culture, and producer of the Melbourne Poetry Map. She is a former Vice-Chair of the Stella Prize and Board Member of the Queensland Poetry Festival.
Beejay (she/her) is a writer, literary critic, and the Artistic Director of the Canberra Writers Festival. Her reviews and cultural commentary regularly appear in national arts publications and are increasingly finding an international audience, including in the Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and The New York Times. An award-winning creative writing teacher, Beejay has taught workshops across the globe, including in the US and Cairo. Her short stories and essays have been selected for a number of Australian anthologies.
Bram (he/him) is a semi-reformed punk rocker, recovering academic, lapsed lawyer, occasional critic, and full-time dad. His novel, The Book of Dirt (Text Publishing), won the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction (US), the Voss Prize, and three categories at the NSW Premier’s Awards. His stories have appeared in numerous journals and collections. He was co-founder of Melbourne Jewish Book Week, and writes the novella focussed Substack A Book For Ants. Bram has previously judged the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, The Age Book of the Year, and SMH Young Novelist Award.
Dr Yves Rees (they/them) is a writer and historian living in Naarm. They are a Senior Lecturer in History at La Trobe University, co-host of Archive Fever podcast, and author of All About Yves: Notes from a Transition (Allen & Unwin). They are also co-editor of Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia (Allen & Unwin) and Transnationalism, Nationalism and Australian History (Palgrave). Dr Rees was awarded the 2020 ABR Calibre Essay Prize and a 2021 Varuna Residential Fellowship. Their writing has featured in The Guardian, The Age, Sydney Review of Books, Australian Book Review, Meanjin, Griffith Review, and Overland. They have judged the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the Calibre Essay Prize. Their next book is forthcoming with NewSouth in 2024.
View Past Stella Judges
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