This is the list I’ll be making my 2022 Stella Prize longlist predictions from. Sing out if there are errors (for example the book was not actually published in 2021) or if there are books I’ve missed – my compilation of this list involves absolutely no quality control.
FICTION
Like Mother by Cassandra Austin
The Things We See in the Light by Amal Awad
New Animal by Ella Baxter
FRiends and Dark Shapes by Kavita Bedford
After Story by Larissa Behrendt
When Things Are Alive They Hum by Hannah Bent
Wild Abandon by Emily Bitto
The Shut Ins by Katherine Brabon
Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life by Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle
All That I Remember About Dean Cola by Tania Chandler
Love, In Theory by Elodie Cheesman
She is Haunted by Paige Clark
The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta
The Price of Two Sparrows by Christy Collins
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
Echolalia by Briohny Doyle
The Covered Wife by Lisa Emanuel
Piazza Garibaldi by Marisa Fazio
The Ripping Tree by Nikki Gemmell
Sargasso by Kathy George
Repentance by Alison Gibbs
The Breaking by Irma Gold
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss
The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman by Julietta Henderson
From Where I Fell by Susan Johnson
Devotion by Hannah Kent
Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser
Gunk Baby by Jamie Marina Lau
Nothing But My Body by Tilly Lawless
The Other Side of Beautiful by Kim Lock
The Truth About Her by Jacqueline Maley
Love Objects by Emily Maguire
Smokehouse by Melissa Manning
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
The Tulip Tree by Suzanne McCourt
Everyday Madness by Susan Midalia
The Airways by Jennifer Mills
Unsheltered by Clare Moleta
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
Cold Coast by Robyn Mundy
Believe In Me by Lucy Neave
The Last Reunion by Kayte Nunn
Night Blue by Angela O’Keefe
The Family Doctor by Debra Oswald
The Rabbits by Sophie Overett
Skimming Stones by Maria Papas
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
One Hundred Days by Alice Pung
Love and Virtue by Diana Reid
Small Joys of Real Life by Allee Richards
The Golden Book by Kate Ryan
A Room Called Earth by Madeline Ryan
The Last Woman in the World by Inga Simpson
Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson
A Million Things by Emily Spurr
The Imitator by Rebecca Starford
Eye of a Rock by Josephine Taylor
The Performance by Claire Thomas
Flock by Ellen van Neerven
Catch Us the Foxes by Nicola West
Hold Your Fire by Chloe Wilson
The Newcomer by Laura Elizabeth Woollett
Small Acts of Defiance by Michelle Wright
The Last Bookshop by Emma Young
MEMOIRS
Power Play by Julia Banks
Late Bloomer by Clem Bastow
No Document by Anwen Crawford
Lapsed by Monica Dux
Muddy People by Sara El Sayed
My Friend Fox by Heidi Everett
Too Migrant Too Muslim Too Loud by Mehreen Faruqi
How to End a Story by Helen Garner
Dissolve by Nikki Gemmell
Black and Blue by Veronica Gorrie
Happy Endings by Bella Green
The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar
Emotional Female by Yumiko Kadota
The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen by Krissy Kneen
Good Indian Daughter by Ruhi Lee
Daring to Fly by Lisa Millar
Daughter of the River Country by Dianne O’Brien
Ten Thousand Aftershocks by Michelle Tom
The First Time I Thought I Was Dying by Sarah Walker
As Beautiful as Any Other by Kaya Wilson
NONFICTION
Black, White and Exempt by Lucinda Aberdeen and Jennifer Jones
Currowan by Bronwyn Adcock
Complaint! by Sara Ahmed
Adrift in Melbourne by Robyn Annear
Leaping Into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears by Bernadette Brennan
Why You Should Give a F*ck about Farming by Gabrielle Chan
Lies, Damned Lies by Claire G. Coleman
Renewal: Five Paths to a Fairer Australia by Sophie Cousins
Brave New Humans by Sarah Dingle
Killing Sydney by Elizabeth Farrelly
Growing Up Disabled in Australia by Carly Findlay
The Winter Road by Kate Holden
Into the Loneliness by Eleanor Hogan
Trivial Grievances by Bridie Jabour
The Believer by Sarah Krasnostein
Reading the Seasons by Germaine Leece & Sonya Tsakalakis
Vandemonians: The repressed history of colonial Victoria by Janet McCalman
The Women of Little Lon by Barbara Minchinton
Songlines: The Power and the Promise by Margo Neale
Broken: Children, Parents & Family Courts by Camilla Nelson & Catharine Lumby
A Paper Inheritance by Dymphna Stella Rees
Our Exceptional Friend by Emma Shortis
The Accidental Prime Minister by Annika Smethurst
Everything Harder Than Everyone Else by Jenny Valentish
Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego
POETRY
Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen
Memory Book by Cassandra Atherton & Jessica L. Wilkinson
How Decent Folk Behave by Maxine Beneba Clarke
Beneath the Tree Line by Jane Gibian
How to Make a Basket by Jazz Money
Trigger Warning by Maria Takolander
The OPen by Lucy Van
I’ve only read five from this list (what was I doing last year?!), but have a bunch of others in my possession. Of those I’ve read, I loved Jennifer Down and Claire Thomas’s novels and I hope they are listed.
Do you have any early tips?
The 2022 Stella Prize longlist will be announced on February 28; the shortlist on March 31; and the winner on April 28.
A very long list indeed! I’ve read The Performance which I enjoyed very much plus Scary Monsters which I liked but I’m still unsure about that structure. Almost all the others are new to me – a reflection of how little Australian fiction is published here in the UK, I suspect.
So many appealing titles! I’ve only read The Performance, and loved it.
In NF, I’ve read Vandemonians: The repressed history of colonial Victoria by Janet McCalman and I have A Paper Inheritance by Dymphna Stella Rees on the TBR but haven’t got round to reading it yet. Growing Up Disabled in Australia by Carly Findlay was my NF book of the year for 2021.
Of the memoirs on your list I’ve read only No Document. Memoirs are not my thing, but I would definitely add My Forests by Janine Burke, Imaginative Possession by Belinda Probert and Signs and Wonders by Delia Falconer. I would also add Homecoming to your Poetry list.
I read a lot of fiction last year but not so many from your list. These are the ones I’ve read in case you’re looking for links to reviews.
After Story by Larissa Behrendt
The Price of Two Sparrows by Christy Collins (my book of the year for 2021)
Love Objects by Emily Maguire
The Airways by Jennifer Mills
Believe In Me by Lucy Neave
Night Blue by Angela O’Keefe
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
The Golden Book by Kate Ryan
Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson
The Performance by Claire Thomas
Small Acts of Defiance by Michelle Wright
I liked and/or admired most of these but few of them are IMO potential prize winners i.e. outstanding.
I abandoned a couple of those on your list and would have done the same to Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser, but you know, she’s MdK so I didn’t.
What a list! I thought I’d read a lot of Australian women writers last year, but I’ve only read a few from this list … I guess I must have read more backlist titles than newer ones.
But I loved One Hundred Days, New Animal, Night Blue and Scary Monsters.
As for others to add to the list, I’m not sure if The Truth About Her by Jacqueline Maley counts? It was published in 2021.
I’ve read quite a few of those. You might be onto something…
Oh, wow, I haven’t heard of a single one of them. What a shame.
I’ve read just two of the novels, and am reading Flock on my iPad. I have several on my TBR.
What about Melinda Bobis’ The kindness of birds. There were also some good short story collections last year I think?
BTW I think Nardi Simpson was on last year’s longlist. Darn it, as I’ve read it!
Yes, I think you’re right!