In recent years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers have claimed some of Australia's most prestigious literary prizes, including the Miles Franklin, the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Some of these winners — including Alexis Wright, Melissa Lucashenko and Tara June Winch — appear alongside poets, activists and debut authors in our wrap of First Nations writing …
Evelyn Araluen has won the $60,000 Stella Prize for her playful and searing debut collection of poetry and prose, Dropbear, which was described by the prize judges as "breathtaking". "We're in one of the most exciting times for Black writing I think that we've ever seen," Araluen told ABC TV's Art Works in 2021. Araluen's Stella Prize win is another …
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement drew attention to the ongoing issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody, sparking a surge of protests in Australia. Saunders is part of a wave of First Nations women and non-binary writers who are using poetry to grapple with the ongoing impact of colonisation; poets …
Young Mununjali Yugambeh author Ellen van Neerven pulled off a hat-trick at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards for their second poetry collection, Throat, at an online ceremony on Monday evening. Awarding van Neerven's collection the Book of the Year, the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry and the Multicultural NSW Award, the judges praised the work's "beauty, honesty and power" and …