Summer Reading List

As we approach the end of the year, we asked Stella Prize-listed authors, staff and arts workers what they’ve got on their reading pile for the summer.

Jessica Alice | Chief Executive Officer of Writers SA and Chair of the Arts Industry Council of SA

This summer I’m looking forward to catching up on Amanda Lohrey’s latest book and ninth novel, The Conversion, especially on the heels on her previous work The Labyrinth picking up all the awards (the Miles Franklin, a Prime Minister’s Literary Award, a Tasmanian Literary Award and the Voss Prize). Carceral Capitalism author Jackie Wang has a new collection out, Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun: An Almanac of Extreme Girlhood (ripper title), that acts something like autobiography, and I’ve had my eye on Lee Geum-yi’s Can’t I Go Instead (translated by An Seon Jae), exploring the class divisions of two Korean women across World War II and the Korean War. And I’ll be returning to Susie Anderson’s debut collection The Body Country as a perfect poetry gift for the summer after coming out earlier in the year.

Cate Kennedy | Shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2013 and 2022 Stella Prize Judge

I’ve got some great summer reading stacked up. First off a wonderful constellation of short story collections from authors I had the pleasure of finally meeting in person at the Australian Short Story Festival in Adelaide: Gunflower by Laura Jean McKay, Mirandi Riwoe’s The Burnished Sun, Anne Casey-Hardy’s Cautionary Tales for Excitable Girls and the much-anticipated collection by US writer Robin McLean, Get ‘Em Young, Treat ‘Em Tough, Tell ‘Em Nothing. It was fabulous to meet Robin and hear her speak about her writing practice, along with these other wonderful Australian women writers. I love a good essay and I have two great collections I’m looking forward to getting into, Oppositions by Mary Gaitskill and Had I Known, collected essays by one of my favourite writers, the late, great Barbara Ehrenreich.  

Fiona Sweet | Executive Director & CEO of Stella

I have so many books to read this summer, I can’t wait to have a few weeks away and enjoy a bit of sunshine and these great books. First some phenomenal Australian women’s writing, including Wifedom by Anna Funder, West Girls by Laura Elizabeth Woollet, Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright and The Visitors by Jane Harrison. I’ll follow with The Bee Sting by Paul Murray and Days Without End by Sebastian Barry. Both have been on my radar for quite a while. I’m also looking forward to reading Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning Hamnet, a fictional account on Shakespeare’s son Hamnet. 

Clare Wright |  2014 winner of the Stella Prize, host of the ABC Radio National history series Shooting the Past and co-hosts of the podcast Archive Fever

My leaning tower of TBR is teetering towards imminent collapse. I’ll lighten its load this summer by taking Alecia Simmonds’ Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law off the top. I’ve dipped into this fascinating account of the way 19th century legal codes paradoxically gave women a structural defence against male privilege when it came to affairs of the heart, but I am looking forward to the deep dive. Ditto Kate Fullagher’s Bennelong and Phillip: A History Unravelled. History writing has never been more exciting! I’ll also be reading Angela Saini’s The Patriarchs in advance of interviewing her at the Jaipur Literary Festival next February but, to be honest, I’m so looking forward to lying on a beach somewhere and make my way through a bunch of fiction new releases that are not so new anymore: Adrian Howell’s Hydra, Melissa Lucashenko’s Edenglaisse, Jacinta Halloran’s Resistance, Mirandi Riwoe’s Sunbirds, and Grace Chan’s Every Version of You. I’m also intending to go back to some classics, particularly Charmian Cliff’s Peel Me a Lotus and The Sponge Divers. I have a hankering for the Aegean.

The Woman Booker Prize Club | @thewomanbookerprizeclub, Niplaluna, Hobart

Kathryn Montgomery

I’m a big fan of Stella alumna Charlotte Wood and I’m looking forward to delving into Stoneyard Devotional, a book that needs time to mull over (perfect for the holiday break). The Albatross by Nina Wan is also shining bright at the top of my book pile and ready to be picked up. 

Melanie Ross

I can’t wait to have a break from work to get stuck into Anna Funder’s Wifedom and Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood, which sounds exactly the right amount of bonkers.

Emily Schade

I’m is dreaming of Ann Pachett’s beautifully covered Tom Lake, which I’m planning to take to the beach. I will also be ticking off my “I’ve been meaning to read this” list Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

Megan Tighe

My late-2023 reading was dominated by short stories and Booker longlisters, so I’m keen for a chunky, immersive fantasy like The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox. Lang Leav’s Others Were Emeralds stood out on a recent bookshop visit (and I might finally finish my slow journey through Alexis Wright’s epic Carpentaria.)