The Stella Prize 2026 Winner
Announcing the 2026 Stella Prize Winner
“This is a thoughtful, deliberative work, and one of the best graphic novels I have read this year.” Sydney Morning Herald / The Age
“A meditative graphic novel laced with horror and humour Lai’s drawings come alive in these sequences, which crescendo to a red-hot climax, with bursts of fury standing starkly on the page.”
The Guardian
“The book feels lifelike precisely because of its depiction of the characters’ unsatisfying, difficult choices. And in its multiple possibilities, “Cannon” offers hope for futures completely unforeseen.”
The New York Times
“A study of rage… and the obligations that bind us…Visually and emotionally arresting.”
The New Yorker
Lee Lai has won the 2026 Stella Prize for her second book, ‘Cannon’, published by Giramondo Publishing, a history-making win that sees a graphic novel awarded the $60,000 prize for the first time, thanks to the generous support of the Stella Forever Fund.
Lee Lai – Cannon
Graphic Novel · Giramondo Publishing
About the Book
We arrive to wreckage – a restaurant smashed to rubble, with tables and chairs upended riotously. Under the swampy nighttime cover of a Montreal heatwave, we meet our protagonist, Cannon, dripping in beads of regret sweat. She was supposed to be closing the restaurant for the night, but instead, she destroyed it. The horror-scape left in her wake is not unlike the films Cannon and her best friend, Trish, watch together. Cooking dinner and digging into deep cuts of Australian horror movies on their scheduled weekly hangs has become the glue in their relationship. In high school, they were each other’s lifeline – two queer second-generation Chinese nerds trapped in the suburbs. Now, on the uncool side of their twenties, the essentialness of one another feels harder to pin down. Yet when our stoic and unbendingly well-behaved Cannon finds herself very uncharacteristically surrounded by smashed plates, it is Trish who shows up to pull her out.
In Cannon, Lee Lai’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed and award-winning Stone Fruit, the full palette of a nervous breakdown is just a part of what is on offer. Lai’s sharp sense of humour and sensitive eye produce a story that explores the intimacy of queer friendship and the weight of family responsibility, and breaks open the question of what we owe both to each other and to ourselves.
2026 Stella Prize Judges report
Reliable and dutiful Cannon (real name: Lucy; nickname Luce; ironically – or perhaps not – Luce Cannon) has myriad responsibilities. During the day, she helps her avoidant mother by taking care of her elderly gung-gung (maternal grandfather). At night, she works in the pressure-cooker kitchen of a fine dining restaurant. In her off-hours, she’s a confidante and troubleshooter for best friend Trish. However, Cannon is about to crack – something we see in a dizzying flashforward in the first pages. Cannon is a compelling depiction of a fracturing friendship between two queer, second-generation Chinese women. It is also a bruising examination of the lifelong weight that people – often women – carry, the profound toll it takes to be the “responsible one”, and what can happen when you are being taken advantage of repeatedly. (Bonus: it is also, somehow, very funny.) Lai’s elegant artistry evokes horror and poignancy, shock and delight, and Cannon is an incontestable reminder that – in the hands of a masterful artist and storyteller – the very best graphic novels can do what prose alone cannot. And Cannon is absolutely one of the best.
“I am thrilled that Lee Lai’s sophomore novel ‘Cannon’ has won the 2026 Stella Prize. For the first time in the Stella Prize’s 14-year history, the title has been awarded to a graphic novel. ‘Cannon’ is a triumph of the form, a precise and eloquently written narrative that uses visuality to its benefit. Lee Lai crafts panels to move readers through melancholic atmospheres to crowded, tense palpable scenes that explode from the page. The book is a cinematic experience, with filmic compositions and references that showcase the power of graphic storytelling.
Just as strong as the visuals is the characters and the world at the core of this beautiful book. Cannon is a story about the complexities of relationships, and ones not often at the forefront of women’s stories: about women’s friendships, and the movement of friendships through life and conflict. Lucy ‘Cannon’ and best friend Trish navigate the complexities of familial relationships in the context of cultural, identity, and generational differences, in a beautifully intimate story of forgiveness, gentleness, queerness, and care.
This book is an incredibly rewarding read, and I encourage everyone – from seasoned readers familiar with the form, to first time readers of a graphic novel – to read. This win will expose Cannon, a truly exceptional feat of the graphic novel form, to new readers nationwide,”
From the 2026 Stella Prize Chair of Judges, Sophie Gee
“Lee Lai’s Cannon is already an internationally acclaimed graphic novel. The story Lai tells about her understated heroine Lucy “Cannon,” is quietly powerful, striking directly at the reader’s heart. The novel’s settings alternate between modest domestic situations and a bustling restaurant, with a flock of never-explained black birds that swoop in and grab our attention. Lai’s heroine struggles to balance the demands of family, love and work, and is always teetering on the faultlines of joy and rage. This is a novel of immense skill and power that uses words and the visual language of comics to construct a complex and pleasingly unresolved story that readers can’t put down. Cannon will appeal to young adults and old adults and everyone in between. It’s relatable, funny, wise, and very weird in all the best ways,”
