Congratulations to all those on the first ever Stella Prize shortlist which was announced yesterday!
Chair of the judges Kerryn Goldsworthy said:
In choosing a shortlist of six books from the longlist of twelve, the judges concentrated on picking the six we thought were the best books regardless of form, genre and subject matter. While no non-fiction book appears on the shortlist, we were glad to have been able to longlist three, chosen from a large field of entries in which fiction outnumbered non-fiction by almost four to one.
The shortlist is:
The Burial by Courtney Collins
Questions of Travel by Michelle de Krester
The Sunlit Zone by Lisa Jacobson
Like a House on Fire by Cate Kennedy
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan
Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany
Read more about the titles and their authors here.
The inaugural Stella Prize will be presented on the evening of Tuesday 16 April at an award event in Melbourne. What a difficult decision to have to make!
And a reminder that next week is another big literary awards week so get ready to add more books to your TBR shelves. The Miles Franklin is going super-interactive and suspenseful this year. To start with, the longlist will appear in your Twitter stream as cover pics from 9am on Tuesday 26 March.
Follow @_milesfranklin for updates and if you’re up for it, another reading challenge challenges you to take part — the Miles of Reading Challenge. All about that and more here. So readers: looks like a busy few months coming up!
Happy reading,
Paula