Melbourne
Stella Day Out is a free one-day literary festival that celebrates and promotes the outstanding contributions of women and non-binary writers to Australian literature.
Stella Day Out Orange will be held at Orange City Library (part of Central West Libraries) on Saturday 23rd November.
To save your spot, follow the links in the dropdown boxes below. We look forward to seeing you there!
Finding Our Shelters: Reserve your spot here
Songwriting and Storytelling: Reserve your spot here
Upcoming Events
Session 1 – Trusting your intuition
Mandy Beaumont, author of The Furies, spoke to Jayne Tuttle about the strong female characters in her novels.
Mandy Beaumont is an award-winning writer and a researcher in creative writing. Her debut novel The Furies was long-listed for the Stella Prize and shortlisted for the MUD Literary Prize as well as the Queensland Literary Awards Fiction Book of the Year. Her collection of short stories, Wild, Fearless Chests, was shortlisted for the Richell Prize and the Dorothy Hewett Award. Stories from the collection also won the MOTH International Short Story Prize and were shortlisted for other notable awards. She was a convenor in creative writing and communications at Griffith University for over a decade, and holds a PhD and a Research Masters in creative writing. She is also a regular feature writer and book reviewer for The Big Issue. Her new true crime inspired novel, The Thrill of It, will be out in March 2025.
Jayne Tuttle is a writer, performer and bookseller. Her first book, Paris or Die, was published in 2020 and her second, My Sweet Guillotine, in 2022. A third, to complete the Paris trilogy, is set for publication in 2025. She has written for The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, and other international outlets. In 2023, Jayne was sponsored by the Ville de Paris to adapt and perform the play for an international audience. She has also received fellowships from the La Napoule Art Foundation and Bundanon Trust, and is a long-term artist-in-residence at the Centre les Récollets in Paris. In 2021, she was awarded the Varuna Eric Dark Flagship Fellowship. Jayne co-owns The Bookshop at Queenscliff.
Session 2 – Stories inspired by history
Emily Bitto discussed how her research inspired her novel The Strays. Moderated by Sally Warhaft.
Emily Bitto is an award-winning writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. She has a Masters in Literary Studies and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne. Her debut novel, The Strays, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, and the published novel went on to win the 2015 Stella Prize. Her second novel, Wild Abandon, won the Margaret and Colin Roderick Award and was shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal. Emily has been teaching
Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer and the host of the Wheeler Centre’s live journalism series, The Fifth Estate, now in its third year. She is a former editor of The Monthly magazine and the author of the bestselling book Well May We Say: The Speeches that Made Australia. Sally is a regular host and commentator on ABC radio and has a PhD in anthropology. She did her fieldwork in Mumbai, India, living by the seashore with the local fishing community.
Session 3 – Examining 13 years of Stella
Authors Jennifer Down, Jessie Tu and Katherine Brabon examined 13 years of Stella, and what it feels like to be a young writer listed for a national prize. Moderated by Corrie Perkins.
Jessie Tu is a book critic at The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, and a journalist for Women’s Agenda. Her debut novel, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, won the ABIA for 2020 Literary Fiction Book of the Year. The Honeyeater is her second novel.
Katherine Brabon is an author based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her latest novel, Body Friend, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize.
Jennifer Down is an author, editor and translator. Her most recent novel, Bodies of Light, received the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize in the same year. She lives in Naarm/Melbourne.
Corrie Perkin is a books advocate, editor, award-winning journalist, podcaster, interviewer, events host and communications advisor. For 12 years she owned a bookshop in Melbourne and continues her mission of bringing writers and readers together via her media projects. Corrie is a former board member of the Wheeler Centre. She is also the Director of the Sorrento Writers Festival.
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As a not-for-profit organisation with ambitious goals, Stella relies on the generous support of donors to help fund our work.
Every donation is important to us and allows Stella to continue its role as the leading voice for gender equality and cultural change in Australian literature.
Stella is a not-for-profit organisation with DGR status. All donations of $2 or more are tax-deductible.
