Stella Day Out is a free one-day literary festival that celebrates and promotes the outstanding contributions of women and non-binary writers to Australian literature.
The first mini festival was on 9 November 2023 at Treasury Theatre, Melbourne. Stella curated four sessions that inspired everyone interested in literature and the Stella Prize. The sessions (The Language of Poetry, Talking Graphic Novels, The Stella Prize Story and After the Jaguar) are all available online.
The next Stella Day Out will be held in Hobart on 16 February 2024 at The Salon at The Hedberg, University of Tasmania (19-27 Campbell Street, Hobart). Confirmed talent include the 2017 winner of the Stella Prize, Heather Rose, Stella Prize longlisted author, Amanda Lohrey and poet and editor Michelle Cahill. Stella Day Out Hobart is sold out. Join the livestream via our YouTube channel.
Program | 16 February, Hobart
1pm – 2pm | Exploring hope and trust in fiction
Award-winning author Amanda Lohrey sits down with poet and editor Michelle Cahill to talk about hope and trust in literature. Join the livestream.
Michelle Cahill (she/they)
Michelle is a poet and novelist of Indian heritage. She is the 2023 Hedberg Writer-in-Residence. Her short story collection Letter to Pessoa was awarded the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing. Her novel Daisy & Woolf was longlisted in the ALS Gold Medal and the Voss Literary Prize. She has been shortlisted in the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Prize, the Peter Porter Poetry Prize and received the KWS Hilary Mantel International Short Story Prize. Cahill is the artistic director of Mascara.
Amanda Lohrey (she/her)
Amanda lives in Tasmania and writes fiction. In November 2012 she received the 2012 Patrick White Award for literature. Her 2020 novel The Labyrinth won the 2021 Miles Franklin Award, the Voss Award for fiction, the Prime Minister’s Award for fiction and the Tasmanian Literary Award for fiction. Her most recent publication is a novel, The Conversion (2023). In 2022, Melbourne University Press published a critical study of her work, Lohrey, by Dr Julieanne Lamond of the Australian National University.
2:30pm – 3:30pm | Nothing bad ever happens here: Heather Rose in conversation with Danielle Wood
Hear the 2017 Stella Prize winner, Heather Rose, reflect on her stunning novel The Museum of Modern Love and her latest book Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here. Join the livestream.
Heather Rose (she/her)
Heather is the author of nine novels and a memoir. Heather’s books have been shortlisted, longlisted or won awards for literary fiction, crime fiction, fantasy/sci fi and children’s literature. Her seventh novel, The Museum of Modern Love, won the 2017 Stella Prize, the Christina Stead Prize and the Margaret Scott Prize. It has been widely translated. Heather’s most recent novel Bruny won the ABIA 2020 General Fiction Book of the Year and is currently in production as a six-part tv series. The Museum of Modern Love is being adapted for film. The play of The Museum of Modern Love, written by Tom Holloway, debuted at the 2022 Sydney Festival. Heather’s latest book is the memoir Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here. Heather’s next novel will be published in late 2024.
Danielle Wood (she/her)
Danielle is the author of the Vogel Prize-winning novel The Alphabet of Light and Dark, Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls, Housewife Superstar: the very best of Marjorie Bligh and Mothers Grimm. As ‘Minnie Darke’, she’s written the novels Star-crossed, The Lost Love Song, and With Love from Wish & Co, and the novellas Wild Apples and The Yellow Wood. With Heather Rose, she is ‘Angelica Banks’, author of the Tuesday McGillycuddy books for children. She is also the co-editor of two anthologies of Tasmanian writing, Deep South: Stories from Tasmania and Island Story: Tasmania in Object and Text. She lives in Hobart and teaches writing at the University of Tasmania.
Fullers Bookshop will be the bookseller for this event.
Free coffee, tea and biscuits available before and after each session.
Tickets are sold out.
