This is the list I’ll be making my Stella longlist predictions from – sorry, it’s in no particular order. What have I missed?
FICTION
A Constant Hum by Alice Bishop
The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
Exploded View Carrie Tiffany
Act of Grace by Anna Krien
There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett
Bruny by Heather Rose
The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley
The Place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta
The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan
The Old Lie by Claire G. Coleman
Room for a Stranger by Melanie Cheng
Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar
Lapse by Sarah Thornton
Lucky Ticket by Joey Bui (short stories)
The Yield by Tara June Winch
The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson
Where the Dead Go by Sarah Bailey
Gone by Midnight by Candice Fox
Invented Lives by Andrea Goldsmith
The Trespassers by Meg Mundell
This Taste for Silence by Amanda O’Callaghan (short stories)
Eight Lives by Susan Hurley
Islands by Peggy Frew
From Here on, Monsters by Elizabeth Bryer
Here Until August by Josephine Rowe (short stories)
White Horses by Rachael Treasure
Six Minutes by Petronella McGovern
All the Tears in China by Sulari Gentill
The Blue Rose by Kate Forsyth
Dolores by Lauren Aimee Curtis (novella)
Inappropriation by Lexi Freiman
A Superior Spectre by Angela Meyer
Joan Smokes by Angela Meyer (novella)
The Best Kind of Beautiful by Frances Whiting
Field of Poppies by Carmel Bird
Hide by S.J. Morgan
A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird
Little Stones by Elizabeth Kuiper
The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell
The Breeding Season by Amanda Niehaus
Allegra in Three Parts by Suzanne Daniel
Hitch by Kathryn Hind
The Collaborator by Diane Armstrong
The Subjects by Sarah Hopkins
Wearing Paper Dresses by Anne Brinsden
Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris
Turn Left at Venus by Inez Baranay
Paris Savages by Katherine Johnson
Shepherd by Catherine Jinks
Fabulous Lives by Bindy Pritchard (short stories)
While You Were Reading by Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus
The Burnt Country by Joy Rhoades
Mother of Pearl by Angela Savage
Red Can Origami by Madeleine Dickie
Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha
NONFICTION
Beauty by Bri Lee
Fixed It by Jane Gilmore
City of Trees by Sophie Cunningham
Stop Being Reasonable by Eleanor Gordon-Smith
This is What a Feminist Looks Like by Emily Maguire
Witches: What Women Do Together by Sam George-Allen
White Tears, Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad
Death on the Derwent by Robin Bowles
See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill
Troll Hunting by Ginger Gorman
Olive Cotton by Helen Ennis
Paper Emperors by Sally Young
Nothing New by Robyn Annear
The Knowledge Solution by Anna Clark
Meet Me At Lennon’s by Melanie Myers
The Shelf Life of Zora Cross by Cathy Perkins
Fallen by Lucie Morris-Marr
Hearing Maud by Jessica White
Sea People by Christina Thompson
MEMOIR
The Girls by Chloe Higgins
Yellow Notebook by Helen Garner
Your Own Kind of Girl by Clare Bowditch
Night Fishing by Vicki Hastrich
The Cherry Picker’s Daughter by Aunty Kerry Reed-Gilbert
Say Hello by Carly Findlay
Beyond Words by Jacqueline Kent
Unconditional Love by Jocelyn Moorhouse
Unlike the Heart by Nicola Redhouse
Fridays with my Folks by Amal Awad
Other People’s Houses by Hilary McPhee
Fake by Stephanie Wood
Breaking Badly by Georgie Dent
About A Girl by Rebekah Robertson
The Innocent Reader by Debra Adelaide
So I just have to read those, less the two, no five, I’ve already read and I’m up to date. After that I suppose I’d better read the guys.
Ha! I’ve only read a handful of them. I reckon there’s a bit of a ‘formula’ when it comes to list composition (a mix of fiction, short stories, nonfiction, memoir).
I start my real Stella reading on Feb 6 (when the longlist is announced).
Historically, I’m rubbish at predictions!
Oh good for you for doing this Kate. I think I’ve only read four of these so far, but I will have read two more at least by the end of February! I have a few on my TBR too so depending on which ones are long listed I’ll try to give them priority.
I’m assuming that I’ve captured the 2019 Aus books you’ve read??
Pretty much, I think, though Karen Viggers’ The orchardist’s daughter was also published in 2019. It spans the commercial-literary fiction divide I think, but so do some of the others you’ve listed?
Yes, I think lots on the list are commercial – I throw everything on the list during the year, without any sorting as I go!
Well, I’ve read 17 of your fiction list and Hearing Maud from the NF and would agree that those are all worth reading even if I didn’t particularly like one or two of them. But I would very unhappy indeed if that wretched book milking the Holocaust made it even onto the longlist.
I don’t know how publication dates affect eligibility but if A Superior Spectre published in 2018 is eligible, then I’d add Stone Girl by Eleni Hale published in the same year.
Agree about the Holocaust book… I seriously doubt it would make the list, particularly given the articles published by the Auschwitz Memorial since.
Fairly sure they have to be published in 2019 – I didn’t check them all, so a few 2018 books might have ended up on that list.
You’re referring to Cilka’s Journey I suspect? A friend gave me her earlier book – i lasted all of 10 pages….the writing was just awful
Yes. The Tattooist is a ‘don’t bother’ from me…
Ha, I didn’t even make it past page 2 or 3. I agree it was terribly written.
Most of these are, unsurprisingly, unknown to me although I’ve read (and loved but not yet reviewed) There Was Still Love.
To be honest, many are unknown to me as well. My predictions will be based on what I’ve red and enjoyed which means it will likely have little correlation with what the judges pick!
That’s me with the Booker and Women’s Prize!
I think you’ve covered them all, Kate 😊 Mind you, I have just read a brilliant short story collection by a WA writer, Emily Paull, which I’d love to see longlisted. It’s very Stella in the sense the stories have a feminist bent.
Oh, how about Red Can Origami by Madeleine Dickie? And I’m not sure if Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha is eligible… she’s Indonesian but lives in Sydney ?
Oh yes, of course, Dickie’s novel was published last year. I will be reading it in February. I will also be reading the Paull but that might be another couple of months away.
Talking short stories, I’ve just realised that there’s another in your list that I’ve read, This taste for silence. I think I’m up to 5 now, the same as Bill!
I’ve read 9 but that’s because I’ve been able to binge on Aussie books now that I’m back living here.
And I’ve now realised that I’ve read 6! I keep missing them – but I think that really is it now, though I’m reading no. 7 right now!
I’ve read 13 – I’m quite surprised (more than I expected).
Okay, have added those to the list. Thanks!
Wow! I’m trying to get better at keeping up with the Stella but I’ll have to wait for the shortlist 🙂 The Rose and the Wood are my must-reads no matter what though.
I LOVED the Wood (and it’s terrible that I still haven’t written a review…). The Rose (based on the blurb) doesn’t really appeal to me but I will likely read it out of loyalty!
Alas, I haven’t read any (or even heard of many). The one I’m most keen to find is Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar, after loving Salt Creek. I still have hopes that it will be published in the UK.
Wolfe Island is my next book (although I still haven’t read Salt Creek!). I guess if it wins the Stella, you can be sure it will be published in the UK.
I’m singularly ill equipped to make any predictions on this. Are you going to the announcement party?
Unfortunately I have another thing on the night of the announcement but on the plus side, I can surreptitiously check Twitter as the announcements are made and place some reserves at my library!
I’ve been wondering about making my own prediction, but I feel a bit overwhelmed by the large number of books here – I’ll probably draft a post with my predictions and then see how much I have to change it!
BTW Meet me at Lennon’s is historical fiction.