Happy International Women’s Day everyone and hooray for the 2018 Stella Prize shortlist.
- The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar (Wild Dingo Press)
- Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman (Hachette Australia)
- The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin)
- An Uncertain Grace by Krissy Kneen (Text Publishing)
- The Fish Girl by Mirandi Riwoe (Seizure)
- Tracker by Alexis Wright (Giramondo)
Thoughts: surprised that a memoir wasn’t included; had kind of hoped that The Choke would make it; Terra Nullius might be hard to beat – it’s topical but also ‘safely fictional’; still can’t believe The Trauma Cleaner wasn’t even in the running…
I’ve read two (Coleman and Kneen); have two more (Azar and de Kretser); trying to get my hands on the Riwoe; and wondering if I’ll get through 600+ pages of Wright before the winner is announced on April 12, 2018.
Start the reading engine…!
I hope you’ll love the de Kretser as much as I did.
I’m in charge of my book group’s selection this month and I think I’ll choose it.
I’ve drafted my post, but have scheduled it for tomorrow, given I just posted late last night. I like to spread my posts out a bit. I have The fish girl and hope to read it soon. I ordered it online from Booktopia. Like you I was expecting The choke to be shortlisted. I’m reading it now, and I’ll be reading Terra Nullius this month. Although we could all tease it around the edges, it looks like a perfectly ok list to me too. I nearly bought The Greengage Tree one in Melbourne last month. Now I wish I had!
BTW a memoir sort of was included. Tracker is described by the publisher as a “collective memoir”!
I wondered about the term ‘collective memoir’ – I guess I’ll find out what it means when I read it (although I’ll be leaving this one until last, given its length).
I’m going to Readings tomorrow – if they don’t have Fish Girl, I’ll check Booktopia.
Yes, I wondered too. I haven’t investigated the book, but I’m wondering if it means that she’s called on the memories of several people to tell his stories? But maybe that’s too obvious for a creative writer like Wright!
Reblogged this on Tasmanian Bibliophile @Large and commented:
I need to get busy. None of the long-listed books I’d read made it to the short-list.
This is largely irrelevant but I want to whinge! Weezelle introduced me to the Stella Prize and consequently to a world of frustration, because it can be nigh on impossible to get hold of books by Australian women through my library. For some reason Australian imprints of global publishing houses don’t get an automatic UK edition. I’d like to read Terra Nullius. Come on, Australia, share your brilliant literature more widely!
It is terribly unfair, particularly given that in Australia we are fortunate to ‘be in the middle’ and tend to get UK and US releases at the same time as they do there.
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