In a move that surprised me as much as anyone else, I’ve been selected as the new Executive Director of the Stella Prize.

My new role was announced today, and I’ll be starting in early August.

In a very short time, Stella has made an important impact on the Australian literary landscape. I feel excited – and privileged – to be selected to lead a team whose work remains so relevant and necessary.

Not sure yet how, or if, my new role will change what I blog about. I guess we’ll work it out as a I go along.

For more details, about my appointment, check out the Stella website.

About the Stella Prize

The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing, and an organisation that champions cultural change.

The prize is named after one of Australia’s iconic female authors, Stella Maria Sarah ‘Miles’ Franklin, and was awarded for the first time in 2013. Both nonfiction and fiction books by Australian women are eligible for entry.

The Stella Prize seeks to:

  • recognise and celebrate Australian women writers’ contribution to literature
  • bring more readers to books by women and thus increase their sales
  • equip young readers with the skills to question gender disparities and challenge stereotypes, and help girls find their voice
  • reward one writer with a $50,000 prize – money that buys a writer some measure of financial independence and thus time, that most undervalued yet necessary commodity for women, to focus on their writing

The Stella Prize runs events at bookshops, festivals and universities around Australia. Stella compiles the annual Stella Count, tracking the number of books by men and women reviewed in our major newspapers and literary magazines.

In 2014, it launched the Stella Schools Program, which aims to inspire change and to empower students – girls and boys alike – by encouraging them to critically engage with their own reading habits and imagine a future not limited by their gender.