The 2021 Stella Prize is now in full swing! The longlist was announced on Thursday evening in a special event online, featuring Executive Director of Stella, Jaclyn Booton, in conversation with Chair of the judging panel, Zoya Patel. All twelve authors shared the inspiration behind their remarkable books.

Since it was first awarded in 2013, the Stella Prize has become an influential and much-loved feature of the Australian literary calendar, significantly boosting sales and raising the profile of individual women and women’s writing in this country. This year, we’re thrilled to welcome a further twelve masterful books to the ever- expanding ‘Stella bookshelf’.

This year’s longlist explores aspects of human nature and the natural world, as well as our place within the natural world. They make space for: untold histories and stories; systemic flaws within the Australian justice system; tales of retribution, grief and loss, self-expression and interrogation; Yuwaalaraay language and culture, experiences unique to women and queer women; the concept of ‘borders,’ both real and imagined; as well as the role of family, community and inheritance.

Stella’s judges — Zoya Patel (Chair), Jane Harrison, Elizabeth McCarthy, Ian See and Tamara Zimet — have selected twelve outstanding books for the 2021 Stella Prize longlist.

The 2021 Stella Prize longlist is:

• Fathoms: the world in the whale by Rebecca Giggs (Scribe Publications)
• Revenge: Murder in Three Parts, by S.L. Lim (Transit Lounge)
• The Animals in That Country, by Laura Jean McKay ((Scribe Publications)
• Witness, by Louise Milligan (Hachette Australia)
• Metal Fish, Falling Snow, by Cath Moore (Text Publishing)
• The Wandering, by Intan Paramaditha (Penguin Random House)
• Stone Sky Gold Mountain, by Mirandi Riwoe (University of Queensland Press)
• Blueberries, by Ellena Savage (Text Publishing)
• Song of the Crocodile, by Nardi Simpson (Hachette Australia)
• Smart Ovens for Lonely People, by Elizabeth Tan (Brio Books)
• A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, by Jessie Tu (Allen & Unwin)
• The Bass Rock, by Evie Wyld (Penguin Random House)