The 2024 Stella Prize winner is Praisworthy by Alexis Wright.
About the book:
Fierce and gloriously funny, Praiseworthy is a genre-defiant epic of climate catastrophe proportions. Part manifesto, part indictment, Alexis Wright’s real-life frustration at the indignities of the Anthropocene stalk the pages of this, her fourth novel.
That frustration is embodied by a methane-like haze over the once-tidy town of Praiseworthy. The haze catalyses the quest of protagonist Cause Man Steel. His search for a platinum donkey, muse for a donkey-transport business, is part of a farcical get-rich-quick scheme to capitalise on the new era of heat. Cause seeks deliverance for himself and his people to the blue-sky country of economic freedom.
Praiseworthy belies its elegy-like form to stand firm in the author’s Waanyi worldview and remind us that this is not the end times for that or any Country. Instead it asks, which way my people? Which way humanity?
About the Author:
Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria and The Swan Book, Wright has published three works of non-fiction: Take Power, an oral history of the Central Land Council; Grog War, a study of alcohol abuse in the Northern Territory; and Tracker, an award-winning collective memoir of Aboriginal leader, Tracker Tilmouth. Her books have been published widely overseas, including in China, the US, the UK, Italy, France and Poland. She held the position of Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne. Wright is the only author to win the Stella Prize twice. Her latest novel is Praiseworthy, which received the Queensland Literary Award for Fiction in 2023. She is the inaugural winner of the Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.
The 2024 Stella Prize shortlist:
Of the shortlist, the judging panel said: "The six books that make up the 2024 Stella Prize shortlist are urgent, necessary and vital.
"These six outstanding books cover a broad range of subjects – from chronic pain, mental health and self-discovery, to climate change and the meat industry.
"The 2024 shortlist offers readers six different visions of the world, each told from a unique point of view and characterised by its exquisite and generous use of language."
Stella’s judges are: Beejay Silcox (Chair), Eleanor Jackson, Bram Presser, Yves Rees and Cheryl Leavy.
The 2024 Stella Prize longlist:
LONGLIST
Bold and compelling books by Australian women and non-binary writers make up the the 12th annual Stella Prize longlist.
The majority of books on the longlist come from independent Australian publishing houses, with the judges praising the vital role small independent publishers play in diversifying the Australian literary landscape.
