Poetry is already dominating Australia’s Stella prize in its first year of being eligible, with three collections among the six shortlisted books up for the $50,000 literary award for women and non-binary writers.
On a shortlist whittled down from 220 entries, Noongar and Yawuru poet Elfie Shiosaki has made it for her first collection Homecoming, which explores colonialisation and assimilation across four generations of women in her family. Philippines-born poet Eunice Andrada is nominated for TAKE CARE, a collection that examines sexual violence and colonial conquest. And Evelyn Araluen, a descendant of the Bundjalung nation, is listed for her debut collection, Dropbear; in his review for the Guardian, critic Declan Fry – also a judge on this year’s Stella prize – wrote that it “repurposes Biblical themes, Australiana kitsch and settler-colonial tropes to astonishing effect”.
