With just hours before the Stella Prize 2018 longlist is announced, I thought I’d take a stab at what I think will appear.
Apparently the judges had to work through more than 170 entries (look at that ace pic below!). Unlike the judges, I’ve only read a handful of eligible books but I’m aware of a bunch that keep crossing my radar. On that rather flimsy basis, I’m predicting the longlist*.
01. Pulse Points by Jennifer Down – TBH, I think Down was robbed when Our Magic Hour went unnoticed on the prize front.
02. The Museum of Words by Georgia Blain – it’s beautiful (and we all know, terribly sad…).
03. The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein – extraordinary, harrowing, unforgettable.
04. See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt – not my cup of tea but I know some people are mad for it.
05. Drawing Sybylla by Odette Kelada – hard to overlook a book about Australian women writers.
06. The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser
07. From the Wreck by Jane Rawson
08. The Choke by Sofie Laguna
09. Terra Nullius by Claire Coleman – topical, relevant, unique.
10. An Uncertain Grace by Krissy Keen – it’s way, way out there but so challenging and original.
11. True Stories by Helen Garner (or something about Helen Garner – The Writing Life of Helen Garner by Bernadette Brennan)
12. Rain Birds by Harriet McKnight
There wasn’t room for the Spargo-Ryan, Valentish, Brewin, Cheng, Tan, Murphy or Abbott, all which could be there… Seriously, why are longlists so short?!
In the past, I’ve been wildly cheeky and made my winner prediction before the longlist was even announced. I’m doing the same this year – I think Sarah Krasnostein’s The Trauma Cleaner will be hard to beat.
*The longlist is made up of twelve books, usually a mix of fiction and non-fiction, memoirs and short stories (and they must have been published in 2017).
I’ll buy An Uncertain Grace soon, and I’ve read a few of the others. Rawson, of whom I’m a big fan, doesn’t seem to get noticed for prizes, but I hope (I predict even) Terra Nullius goes through to the short list.
I’m halfway through Terra – I agree, I think it will make the shortlist. One of those rare books that manages a commentary on the past, present and future.
So many of these are unknown to me but I’m pleased to see The Life to Come on the list and I’m sure Pulse Points more than deserves its position.
As it turns out, another year when Jennifer Down misses out 🙁
I realised I’d jumped the gun when I saw your second post. Seeing what I’d hoped to see.
How long do they have to read al those books. I would never get through them unl s I read every hour of the day..
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I think they begin reading in September. I would need to read as a fulltime job to get through all the entries!
Golly me too. even then I am not sure I would get through the list in time
I do love that photo! I’ve often wondered what my year’s reading would look like all stacked up like that (difficult to achieve what with e-books and library books).
I’ve heard of a few of the books on your list but not read any of them. I’m very keen to read The Trauma Cleaner.
Same. I once stacked up the hard copies in my TBR stack which was enough to spur me into reading action!
I was very disappointed that The Trauma Cleaner didn’t make the longlist (shocked actually!). Anyway, I’ll continue to press it on people, it’s an amazing story.
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Sorry I missed this Kate. I flew down to Melbourne on the 8th and have only had time in the last two days to manage my own blog. I love that you did this. You have some in your list that I expected to be there; some I thought very likely, from reader buzz, like Rawson; and others I wasn’t convinced about but having not read them wouldn’t have been comfortable pronouncing so. Your guesses aren’t bad, in the end, are they? You got a few hits! Well done.