Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 19 April
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Now in its fifth year, the Stella Prize is an award associated with some of Australia’s best writers. Past winners include Carrie Tiffany and Charlotte Wood, and shortlists over the years have included Hannah Kent, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Ellen Van Neerven – each a testament to the range and depth of talent in women’s writing in Australia. The Stella is not just a literary award but a community in which women’s literary talent is fostered and celebrated.
Following the announcement of the Stella Prize on 18 April, Sophie Cunningham will be joined by this year’s winner, Heather Rose, shortlisted author Emily Maguire and Brenda Walker, author and chair of the 2017 judging panel. Come for a discussion of books and brilliant careers.
Presented in partnership with the Stella Prize.
Featuring
Sophie Cunningham
Sophie Cunningham is a non-fiction writer and novelist with a passion for trees, walking and broader environmental issues. Sophie’s most recent books are This Devastating Fever (Ultimo Press) and Flipper and Finnegan ...
Brenda Walker
Brenda Walker is a novelist and Professor of English at the University of Western Australia.
Brenda Walker is the author of the novels Crush, One More River, Poe’s Cat and The Wing of Night. The latter won the 2006 Nita B Kibble Award and the 2007 Asher Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award. Brenda Walker is also a critic, essayist and editor, and teaches at the University of Western Australia, where she is Professor of the English Department. She was the winner of the 2010 Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
Heather Rose
The Museum of Modern Love is Heather Rose’s seventh book, and the winner of the 2017 Stella Prize. Her work spans adult literary fiction, children’s literature, fantasy/sci-fi and crime. Her previous novels include White Heart, The Butterfly Man and The River Wife. She is co-author, with Danielle Wood, of the acclaimed Tuesday McGillycuddy series for children (written under the pen-name Angelica Banks and published internationally).
Heather won the Davitt Award in 2006, and her work has been shortlisted for the Nita B. Kibble Award and the Aurealis Awards, and longlisted for the IMPAC Award. She was a recipient of Varuna’s Eleanor Dark Fellowship and was the inaugural Writer in Residence at the Museum of Old and New Art (MoNA) in Hobart from 2012 to 2013 where she did much of the research for The Museum of Modern Love. Heather is currently studying Fine Arts at UTAS.
Emily Maguire
Emily Maguire is the author of the novels Taming the Beast, an international bestseller and finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Kathleen Mitchell Award, The Gospel According to Luke, Smoke in the Room, Fishing for Tigers and An Isolated Incident. She is a Stella Schools Ambassador and was a judge of the 2016 Stella Prize.
Emily enjoys a high-profile in Australia as a social commentator, with her articles and essays on sex, religion and culture having been published in newspapers and journals including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Financial Review, The Big Issue and Griffith Review.