Stella Prize shortlist announced

Australia’s Stella Prize has cut its 2026 field down to six books, and the shortlist jumps across poetry, memoir, fiction, nonfiction, and a graphic novel instead of clustering around one fashionable genre. The winner of the 60,000 Australian dollar prize will be announced on May 13, and each shortlisted writer receives 5,000 Australian dollars. (stella.org.au) The six shortlisted books are The Rot by Evelyn Araluen, Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks, Fireweather by Miranda Darling, Cannon by Lee Lai, 58 Facets: On Violence and the Law by Marika Sosnowski, and I Am Nannertgarrook by Tasma Walton. Stella says the books were chosen from more than 212 entries covering books first published between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. (stella.org.au, artsreview.com.au) The Stella Prize is an Australian literary award for books by women and non-binary writers, and it was created after the 2011 Miles Franklin Award shortlist included no women at all. The first Stella winner was Carrie Tiffany’s Mateship with Birds in 2013, and recent winners include Michelle de Kretser in 2025 and Alexis Wright in 2024. (stella.org.au, artsreview.com.au) This year’s shortlist keeps that original mission but shows how wide the category has become. Chair of judges Sophie Gee said the final six include poetry, a graphic novel, “a work of hybrid critical and creative writing,” a memoir, and two novels. (stella.org.au, readings.com.au) One of the clearest signals in the list is that form is not being treated like a side issue. Lee Lai’s Cannon is only the second graphic novel ever shortlisted for the Stella Prize, after Lai’s own debut Stone Fruit made the list in 2022. (giramondopublishing.com, stella.org.au) Another signal is that the shortlist mixes established names with writers better known in smaller literary circles. Geraldine Brooks is an internationally recognized novelist and nonfiction writer, while Evelyn Araluen returns to the Stella shortlist after winning the prize in 2022 for Dropbear. (stella.org.au, artsreview.com.au) The judges this year are Sophie Gee, Jaclyn Crupi, Benjamin Law, Gillian O’Shaughnessy, and Ellen van Neerven, and Stella’s public launch was presented by Australian Broadcasting Corporation Bookshelf co-host Kate Evans with author and academic Amy Thunig-McGregor. That pairing matters because the prize now works as both an award and a media event, with livestreams, bookshop promotions, and reading lists pushing shortlisted books into a wider audience. (stella.org.au, whisperinggums.com, readings.com.au) The longlist in March had 12 books, so half the field has now been cut before the May decision. The books that survived cover grief, colonialism, law, family responsibility, fire-struck domestic life, and Indigenous history, which gives a good sense of what Australian literary judges are rewarding in 2026: books with strong voice, but also books carrying political and historical weight. (stella.org.au, whisperinggums.com, artsreview.com.au) That makes this shortlist useful beyond one prize ceremony. In the same way film festivals can tell you what the next awards season will look like, the Stella shortlist now tells Australian readers, publishers, and booksellers which books are about to get another month of attention before the winner is named on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (booksandpublishing.com.au, stella.org.au)