Violence, loss and bright threads of kindness: your guide to the 2026 Stella shortlist |
The six books that make up the shortlist for this year’s Stella Prize consider the problem of violence – both personal and cultural – in very different ways. The abusive ex-husband, the heavy boot of the law, the brutality of invasion, the pressures of isolation and loss.
But hearteningly, each book also has a bright thread of kindness, the richness of natural and built environments – and the consolations of poetry. Even when these narratives are desperately bleak, there is always a shard, at least, of light.
The Stella Prize, established after a long period when women writers were largely overlooked by the Miles Franklin Literary Award, focuses on diversity of form as well as authorship, creating a luscious literary smorgasbord.
This year, that’s reflected in a shortlist that includes a poetry collection by a former Stella winner and a graphic novel by a formerly shortlisted author – as well as a grief memoir, a nonfiction reflection on war and violence, and two novels.
As former Stella chair of judges Kerryn Goldsworthy once said, “excellence is achievable in any form”. I agree: this decision has provided me the opportunity to read six excellent books, across a range of genres, all doing what they do exceptionally well.
The Rot by Evelyn Araluen
Evelyn Araluen’s new collection has already won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and a number of glowing reviews. Let me add mine. Many of the poems in this collection shimmer with energy. Many play with form, too, introducing a fresh poetic diction: lineated and prose poems, fragments of lyrical prose, numbered paragraphs.
Alongside this innovative use of language and line, Araluen introduces a kind of hermeneutics: a mode of interpretation that (ideally) leads to deeper understanding. The Rot powerfully conveys what it feels like to live in the morass of late........