The 2025 Stella Prize winner was announced tonight at a special event at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, and the winner is …
Michelle de Kretser’s Theory & practice
How happy am I that a book I reviewed only last week won the award! It is a provocative and thoroughly engrossing book in all the ways. I don’t feel I did full justice to it, but I did love thinking about what she was doing. It’s playfully mind-bending, but is also very serious about the art of the novel, what it can be, and what it can say. I can’t of course say whether I would have chosen it, as I’ve only read two of the shortlisted books. However, it is a wonderful book, and, when it comes to acceptance speeches, de Kretser is up there with the best. (You can see it at the Stella site) She was compassionate and eloquent. She made a beautiful but pointed statement commemorating two groups of women: the Stella founders who rejected business as usual in the literary world, and the women and girls of Gaza who are suffering under the business-as-usual actions of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
She also said:
“I’m still afraid. But I’ve just accepted a prize that is not about obedience. It’s not about feel-good narratives, it’s not about marketing, it’s not even about creativity – Stella is about changing the world.”
It was pure class.
The announcement was made at a special event at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. It involved: an introduction by Fiona Sweet, Stella’s CEO; a discussion between three of the judges (Astrid Edwards, Leah-Jing McIntosh and Rick Morton) about the shortlisted books; the awarding of the prize; Michelle de Kretser’s recorded acceptance speech (see here); and a conversation between her (in Sussex) and Rick Morton.
Just to remind you, the short list was:
- Jumaana Abdu, Translations (fiction, kimbofo’s review)
- Melanie Cheng, The burrow (fiction, my review)
- Santilla Chingaipe, Black convicts: How slavery shaped Australia (non-fiction/history)
- Michelle de Kretser, Theory & practice (fiction, my review)
- Amy McQuire, Black witness: The power of Indigenous media (non-fiction/essays)
- Samah Sabawi, Cactus pear for my beloved: A family story from Gaza (memoir/non-fiction)
And the judges were Gudanji/Wakaja woman, educator and author Debra Dank; teacher, interviewer/podcaster, and critic Astrid Edwards; writer and photographer Leah-Jing McIntosh; Sudanese–Australian media presenter and writer, Yassmin Abdel-Magied; and journalist and author with a special focus on social policy, Rick Morton. Astrid Edwards was the chair of the panel.
I have now read nine of the 13 winners: Carrie Tiffany’s Mateship with birds (2013, my review), Clare Wright’s The forgotten rebels of Eureka (2014, my review), Emily Bitto’s The strays (2015, my review), Charlotte Wood’s The natural way of things (2016, my review), Heather Rose’s The museum of modern love (2017, my review), Alexis Wright’s Tracker (2018), Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s The erratics (2019, my review), Jess Hill’s See what you made me do (2020, my review), Evie Wyld’s Bass Rock (2021), Evelyn Araluen’s Dropbear (2022, my review), Sarah Holland-Batt’s The jaguar (2023), Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (2024), and Michelle de Kretser’s Theory & practice (2025, my review).
Thoughts anyone?
Whispering Gums 
Definitely need to read this one now.
I’m not going to pussy-foot around as I usually do – as in, you know, we all have so many books on our TBRs so I understand, no pressure, yada yada yada – as just say, I think you should Cathy! The good thing is that it’s not long, and while it’s complex in one sense, that doesn’t mean it’s slow to read.
Such serendipity!
I am so thrilled Stefanie for that reason as well as because I like the book!
I’m wondering when you will catch up and read the four you are missing, but I am a completionist!
Haha, and I’m not Melanie, though I do have a couple on my TBR. The jaguar, for example, I’m very keen to read. And I should (and I mean this in a positive sense) read Praiseworthy too.
Oops, I left my comment about her winning ON your review (not having scanned ahead to see that this was a separate post). That’s what comes of visiting in bursts…the timing feels like it belongs to some other world!
I’ve done a terrible job of keeping up with this prize but I love knowing that it’s out there in the literary world, opening minds and challenging the status quo.
I know the feeling … as you know I visit in bursts. Do you start with the most recent and work back or vice versa? Either way you can be caught out by something that happened before or later. I don’t mind though. It’s just lovely when you – and others – make the time to visit.
And I understand your point about the prize. There are so many I’ve not kept up with. The old Orange Prize for example is one that I’ve slipped more and more and more on. It was so exciting when it started, and I loved the name Orange even though I know it was a sponsor’s name. But somehow Women’s Prize just sounds too generic. Stella is a great name – not only because of the Stella Miles Franklin but because it conjures up “stellar” too!
I’ve always started with the oldest post when I’m playing catch-up. But not too long ago I learned, after leaving a few other comments on the older posts on someone’s blog, that they’d suffered a major loss, and that made me think that I should perhaps reconsider my approach and start with the newer. But, apparently, I haven’t really learned from this! /eyeroll And I think you start with the older too?
Yes, I mostly do … start with the older but I have recently did recently try the other on Stefanie’s blog and while you might avoid the thing that happened to you, you can still miss an event and potentially put your foot in it, because it’s not mentioned in the most recent one/s. So I think chronological is probably the way to go?
Hi Sue, like you I was so happy to read last night that Michelle de Krester won the Stella prize. I have read all the past winners you listed. To my way of thinking Theory and Practice is the best of them all. It should be nominated for the Booker Prize. Her thoughts and writing style are engrossing.
I love that you love this book too … and that you have read ALL of the past winners. Well done. I keep thinking about Theory & practice. It was great to read wasn’t it, because it kept you on your toes.
Hi Sue, it certainly did keep the thought processing going, especially because I didn’t always connect, but wanted to. De Kretser’s writing and style is so inviting to read.,
Exactly … all of that Meg for me too.
Sue, I immediately thought of you last night when I heard the news! Your review encouraged me to get hold of the book, but when the prize was announced, I went online to reserve it from our local library (it’s a country library, so I was surprised and delighted to see it listed in their holdings). I picked it up this morning and I’m looking forward to reading.
Oh I hope you like it Robyn … that is, I hope the hype doesn’t spoil it with expectations because it is hard to describe!
The speech ideas do sound wonderful. Did you attend this event?
Only via the livestream, as it was in Sydney and I was in Melbourne. I didn’t say that did I?
I’ve only read four of the winners to date, but I do have this on my TBR, next up. And I think you may have read 14 – We Come With This Place 🙂