Comments on: The Stella Prize longlist announced

By: Bethanie Blanchard

Bethanie Blanchard — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:43:04 +0000

It’s a really exciting list Kerryn, well done to you and all the judges, I’m very much looking forward to working my way through it.
(and apologies, yes Melbourne was just off the top of my head, mistakenly thought it was early 2012)

By: Amber Jamieson

Amber Jamieson — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 07:01:03 +0000

I think the list looks great. And while I absolutely adored Sophie Cunningham’s Melbourne, I think that came out mid 2011.

By: Kerryn Goldsworthy

Kerryn Goldsworthy — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:34:42 +0000

Books had to be published in 2012 to be eligible, so neither Sydney nor Melbourne qualified. The fiction-to-nonfiction ratio in the entries was something like three or four to one, so the longlist reflects that pretty accurately.

By: mjlivi

mjlivi — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 04:29:29 +0000

Yeah, my comment comes across as more negative than I meant it to – it’s wonderful to see all these books recognised, and I’ll definitely be reading most of them.

By: Bethanie Blanchard

Bethanie Blanchard — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 04:20:30 +0000

Hmm, the only one that springs to mind at the moment is Sophie Cunningham’s Melbourne, but then she is on the board – I wonder if that affected their decision at all?

There is so much strong fiction on this list though – Amy Espeseth’s debut Sufficient Grace and Cate Kennedy’s Like a House on Fire were on my must-read pile anyway so will definitely be reviewing them soon..

By: mjlivi

mjlivi — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 04:12:13 +0000

I was a bit disappointed that it was dominated so much by fiction, but that might just reflect the amount female-written Aus non-fiction out there. I’m not really able to come up with any obvious options, are you? Maybe Delia Falconer’s ‘Sydney’, which I quite liked. Janine Burke’s ‘Nest’ was okay.

Anyway, this still represents 10 new books for me to read in the coming months, so I’m not really complaining.