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Stella > The Stella Prize > 2018

The 2018 Stella Prize

The winner of the 2018 Stella Prize is Alexis Wright for her collective biography Tracker. Wright receives $50,000 in prize money thanks to the generous support of National Australia Bank.

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2018 Winner

Alexis Wright

Tracker

Nonfiction · Giramondo

“In this remarkable biography, Alexis Wright follows an Aboriginal tradition of storytelling that she describes as a ‘practice for crossing landscapes and boundaries, giving many voices a part in the story’. Tracker is a collective memoir of Tracker Tilmouth, charismatic Aboriginal leader, thinker, entrepreneur, visionary and provocateur.”

– 2018 Stella Prize Judges

About the author

Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Her books include Grog War, a study of alcohol abuse in Tennant Creek, and the novels Plains of Promise, The Swan Book and Carpentaria, which won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Victorian and Queensland Premiers’ Literary Awards, and the ALS Gold Medal.


2018 Stella Prize Shortlist

Shokoofeh Azar
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
Claire G. Coleman
Terra Nullius
Michelle de Kretser
The Life to Come
Krissy Kneen
An Uncertain Grace
Mirandi Riwoe
The Fish Girl
Alexis Wright
Tracker

News
April 2018

Alexis Wright’s 2018 Stella Prize acceptance speech

Read the full transcript of Alexis Wright’s beautiful acceptance speech upon winning the 2018 Stella Prize.

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News
April 2018

2018 Stella Prize Award Night: Chair of Judges Fiona Stager announces the winner

Read the full speech given by Chair of Judges Fiona Stager at the 2018 Stella Prize Award Night.

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Interviews
April 2018

The Stella Interview: Alexis Wright on Tracker

In this special Stella interview, Alexis Wright shares insights into the importance of Tracker Tilmouth’s legacy and what she’s working on next.

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2018 Stella Prize Longlist

Shokoofeh Azar
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
Bernadette Brennan
A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work
Kate Cole-Adams
Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness
Claire G. Coleman
Terra Nullius
Michelle de Kretser
The Life to Come
Beverley Farmer
This Water: Five Tales
Paula Keogh
The Green Bell: a memoir of love, madness & poetry
Krissy Kneen
An Uncertain Grace
Sofie Laguna
The Choke
Joyce Morgan
Martin Sharp: His Life and Times
Mirandi Riwoe
The Fish Girl
Alexis Wright
Tracker


The complete list of books entered for this year’s Stella Prize, showcasing as it does much of Australian women’s writing for 2017, reflects the sheer volume of high-quality books that are being published in Australia. What a cornucopia of literary riches! As judges we were impressed with the strength of submissions from so many fine writers. The value of the book as artefact was evident in the attention publishers and designers invest to make books attractive to read and to hold in our hands. Noticeable was the calibre of books from small publishers as is reflected in our longlist.

Many of the books entered look to the future and to the past in order to deepen our understanding of the present. The books submitted reflect the importance of imagination in all of our lives. It is also apparent that writers are increasingly conscious of whose story they are telling and who has a right to tell that story, and how to do so respectfully.

Our longlist challenges the reader to experience the pleasures of reading different forms of writing: speculative fiction, novella, memoir, biography, non-narrative nonfiction, history, short stories and work in translation. Included on the longlist are authors who have inverted genres through imaginative and subversive literary techniques and by incorporating traditional storytelling practices of mythology and magic realism. Reflected also is the power of contemporary Aboriginal storytelling as well as the truly international life experiences of our writers as we travel with characters through Indonesia, Iran and Sri Lanka. Other selected titles are books where science and art intersect to provoke solutions to the challenges facing society today.

Authors on our longlist also pay tribute to the legacy of some of our great thinkers, writers, artists and poets. The biographies and memoirs longlisted offer the reader, to paraphrase Bernadette Brennan, a way to more fully understand the ‘how’ of people such as Tracker Tilmouth, Helen Garner, Martin Sharp and Michael Dransfield. What came through powerfully in these books – and in others – is the struggle to create and the struggle to be true to oneself.

Significant and, oftentimes, critical issues are covered in the writings of our chosen authors. As judges we invite you to immerse yourself in this impressive and diverse list.  As readers we acknowledge the great and generous gift our writers have given us.


2018 Judges

Julie Koh
James Ley
Fiona Stager (chair)
Louise Swinn
Ellen van Neerven

This program is proudly supported by:


    Stella Prize Award Partner


    Program Partners



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328 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

info@stella.org.au


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