Stella Prize Winner 2024

The winner of the Stella Prize was announced tonight. The legendary Alexis Wright won for her novel Praiseworthy.

Set in the north of Australia in a small town surrounded by a mysterious haze. The locals try to combat the haze in various ill-fated schemes. A crazed visionary named Chaos Steel steps in with a vision to use 5 million feral donkeys to solve the climate crisis and create a carbon-neutral Aboriginal transport company. His wife and sons have their own plans. The judges write 'a canon-crushing Australian novel for the ages. Fierce and gloriously funny, Praiseworthy is a genre-defiant epic of climate catastrophe proportions'. 

One of Australia's most lauded authors, Wright is known for her novels Carpentaria and The Swan Book, along with non-fiction books Take Power, Grog War and her Stella Prize winning Tracker (2018). Wright is the first person to win this award twice.

In announcing this prize, the Chair of the Judging Panel, Beejay Silcox, said:

"Praiseworthy is mighty in every conceivable way: mighty of scope, mighty of fury, mighty of craft, mighty of humour, mighty of language, mighty of heart. Praiseworthy is not only a great Australian novel — perhaps the great Australian novel — it is also a great Waanyi novel."

Congratulations Alexis Wright!