Women Lit Fic Crit and the Stella
I’m amused when women claim they are second class citizens when it comes to writing and publishing literary fiction in Australia.
The story below is a classic example:
There certainly were cases in the past when women writers were overlooked for literary awards. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on your perspective), it’s hard to win a gong now unless you’re a female writer.
In the past 20 years there has been an avalanche of women pumping out novels from creative writing courses of dubious worth across Australia.
The pro-fem argument is the gender stakes have been evened-up as since 2012, every winner of the Miles Franklin was a woman, except for Patric. That’s more of a worry than something to be proud of.
It would be hard not to include Carey, Winton, Malouf, Temple and McGahan in that list. Just as it would be hard to exclude Hazzard, Astley, Adams and Jolley.
If you go back 30 years or so, you’ll see some famous names of both genders:
- 2022 – Jennifer Down – Bodies of Light
- 2021 – Amanda Lohrey – The Labyrinth
- 2020 – Tara June Winch – The Yield
- 2019 – Melissa Lucashenko – Too Much Lip
- 2018 – Michelle de Kretser – The Life to Come
- 2017 – Josephine Wilson – Extinctions
- 2016 – Patrić, A. S. – Black Rock White City
- 2015 – Sofie Laguna – The Eye of the Sheep
- 2014 – Evie Wyld – All the Birds, Singing
- 2013 – Michelle de Kretser – Questions of Travel
- 2012 – Anna Funder – All That I Am
- 2011 – Kim Scott – That Deadman Dance
- 2010 – Peter Temple – Truth
- 2009 – Tim Winton – Breath
- 2008 – Steven Carroll – The Time We Have Taken
- 2007 – Alexis Wright – Carpentaria
- 2006 – Roger MacDonald – The Ballad of Desmond Kale
- 2005 – Andrew McGahan – White Earth
- 2004 – Shirley Hazzard – Great Fire
- 2003 – Alex Miller – Journey to Stone Country
- 2002 – Tim Winton – Dirt Music
- 2001 – Frank Moorhouse – Dark Palace
- 2000 – Thea Astley – Drylands; Kim Scott – Benang
- 1999 – Murray Bail – Eucalyptus
- 1998 – Peter Carey – Jack Maggs
- 1997 – David Foster – The Glade Within the Grove
- 1996 – Christopher Koch – Highways to a War
- 1995 – Helen Demidenko – The Hand That Signed the Paper
- 1994 – Rodney Hall – The Grisly Wife
- 1993 – Alex Miller – The Ancestor Game
- 1992 – Tim Winton – Cloudstreet
- 1991 – David Malouf – The Great World
- 1990 – Tom Flood – Oceana Fine
- 1989 – Peter Carey – Oscar and Lucinda
- 1988 – Date of Award Changed
- 1987 – Glenda Adams – Dancing on Coral
- 1986 – Elizabeth Jolley – The Well
The feminisation of literary fiction in Australia is almost complete. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, although some of the novels are barely readable. The exception being Sophie Laguna’s, The Eye of the Sheep. The low tide sales of Australian literary fiction supports my opinion and meaningless literary awards are just that.