Women's Prize Shortlist 2021

 The 2021 Women's Prize shortlist has been announced! 

In March 2021, when the longlist for this year's Women's Prize was announced with 16 nominees,  I predicted that the shortlist would feature Brit Bennett, Raven Leilani, Torrey Peters, Ali Smith and Avni Doshi. Clearly I am terrible with my predictions as I only guessed Bennett correctly!

The 2021 shortlist is as follows:

• The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
• Piranesi  - Susanna Clarke
• Unsettled Ground - Claire Fuller
• Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi
• How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House - Cherie Jones
• No One is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood

All the nominated authors are first time nominees, which is lovely as often the shortlist has one or two big names who dominate the coverage, and this year all of these writers will get promotion. I have not read any of these titles, but have Piranesi and The Vanishing Half ready to go when I finish my current novel. 

The winner will be revealed on 8 September 2021. Happy reading!

Close Encounters

Sarah Krasnostein's award winning The Trauma Cleaner (2018) is one of the best works of non-fiction I have ever read. I rave about it to everyone I know and have gifted copies of the book to friends and family who were also entranced by the subject matter and Krasnostein's gifted storytelling. Needless to say, I have been eagerly awaiting her next book and preordered The Believer (2021) so I could get my mitts on it as soon as it was available. 

Unlike The Trauma Cleaner which focussed on the fascinating life of Sandra Pankhurst, The Believer follows individuals and groups with strong beliefs about life and death, creation, god, ghosts, extraterrestrials, and more. With deep empathy and curiosity, the author immerses herself in their worlds in an effort to understand how people believe. 

'The Death Doula' follows terminally ill Karina and Annie, her death doula, who will help her achieve a good death. In 'Paranormal', Krasnostein joins a group of ghost hunters in their quest to engage with poltergeists.  'In the Beginning' follows a group of people who believe that The Bible tells the true story of creation, and have built a life-size replica of Noah's Ark at the Museum of Creation to teach future generations. 

The second half of the book introduces us to Lynn in 'Halfway Home' who has just been released from three decades in a US prison for the murder of her abusive husband. Lynn is beyond resilient, facing her prolonged sentence by taking each day as it comes. The mystery of a plane lost over the Bass Strait is told in 'Theories of Flight', which focuses on UFOs and the belief that we are not alone.  Finally, we meet Mennonite missionaries in New York who aim to teach others about their faith in 'The Kingdom of Heaven'.

The chapters alternate between the six stories, providing insight into each believer. While this worked well to maintain momentum, it also made for disjointed reading. I found myself wanting to rush through some chapters in an effort to get back to the people I cared about. Krasnostein inserted herself in some of the narratives by sharing childhood reminiscences or glimpses of her family's history. The author's presence was jarring and disconnected, whereas it felt much more natural and intimate in The Trauma Cleaner.

The Believer is undoubtedly an interesting book and I am glad to have been introduced to these people and their worlds. Ultimately, I was deeply engaged with two of the six stories and, had the book been wholly about Annie and/or Lynn, I would have been immensely satisfied. Their stories felt more human and realistic to me, and do not require the leap of faith needed to understand their beliefs as the other stories do. 

Stella Prize 2021

The winner of the Stella Prize was announced this week with Evie Wyld awarded the prize for her novel The Bass Rock. 

The Bass Rock weaves together the lives of three women across four centuries. The Bass Rock sits off the coast of Scotland and the women are linked to this place and each other. In the early 1700s Sarah is accused of being a witch, Ruth moves into a new house at  North Berwick with her new husband after WWII, six decades later Viv catalogues Ruth's belongings. The novel explores these threads and brings them together. 

The Chair of the Judging Panel, Zoya Patel, said:

'The Bass Rock is a consuming and perplexing book, one that forces the reader to engage with the unique narrative structure, but in a way that feels effortless, so engaged are you by the story. This is a novel that demonstrates the author's versatility of style, with the separate narrative parts each having an individual voice. And yet, at no point does the book feel disjointed. Instead, it is as though Evie Wyld has chosen each and every word with precision, building a novel that is a true work of art." 

Wyld received the award and its $50,000 prize money at a virtual award ceremony which was live streamed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evie Wyld won the Miles Franklin Award in 2014 for her second novel All The Birds, Singing. 

Alter Ego

Joyce Carol Oates is a prolific writer, penning countless stories, plays, novels, and more in her six decade career as an author. The (Other) You (2021), her latest collection of short stories, focusses on paths not taken. The characters of the fifteen tales experience regret and longing, love and disappointment. 

The Purple Onion Cafe appears in a trilogy of stories. The cafe was damaged by a bombing, and some stories take place after it has been reconstructed. In 'Women Friends' two women meet at the cafe, where later in the book Matt Smith is 'Waiting for Kizer' in an overlong story, and 'Final Interview' which loops back to earlier stories.

There is no doubt that Oates is a gifted writer. Some of these stories feel autobiographical, penned from lived experience, such as 'The Unexpected' in which a famous writer returns to her hometown in upstate New York to receive an award from the University, finds the town altered and not entirely as she remembered.  

The standouts in this collection are the shorter stories like 'Where are you?' about an elderly couple where the husband refuses to wear a hearing aid and does not hear her when she needs him. Likewise 'Hospice/Honeymoon' is a heartbreaking story about a married couple deciding on palliative care. 

The longer stories, like 'Blue Guide', did not work so well and tended to meander. This story started out with promise - upon retirement, a professor journeys to Italy with his wife, to relive his memories of time spent there as a young man. He finds that the town is not the same as he remembers and consults his decades-old blue guide travel book to find his bearings. The story lost pace as it went on, with the professor repeatedly coming across things that were not quite as he recalled. 

Short story collections can be hit-or-miss. On the whole, I found The (Other) You to be a miss which was disappointing as I had been looking forward to it.  While there were a handful of delightful gems, the collection did not pull together leaving me dissatisfied.

Enough is Enough

It is hard to imagine a more perfect time to publish a book by a former Member of Parliament about her time in politics than right now, when the frustrations of women about the culture of Australian politics have reached fever pitch and the spotlight is firmly on the government boys' club.  

With Sex, Lies and Question Time (2021), Kate Ellis has written a startling account of her time in Parliament, from her election at age 27 in 2004 to her departure in 2019. More than a memoir, this book features interviews with women of all political persuasions including Julia Gillard, Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek, Sarah Hanson-Young, Pauline Hanson, Sussan Ley, Julie Bishop and Linda Burney. The commonalities that emerge paint a picture of a toxic workplace in which entitled men govern for themselves and women are sidelined, gaslighted, and worse.

Sexual innuendo and gossip are rife, as are critiques of women's bodies, clothes, appearance. Ellis' first introduction to the culture occurred shortly after her election when she was asked how many people she had to sleep with to get her job. Over her 15 years in Parliament she was intensely scrutinised and had many rumours spread about her, in an effort to undermine her.

As a young woman who rose to the Ministry in the Rudd government after only three years in Parliament, Ellis faced a lot of criticism even from within her party. But Ellis was never a light-weight. She is intelligent, strategic and was able to get things done.  I had the pleasure of meeting Ellis several times when she was the Minister for Early Childhood Education. Of all the Ministers I engaged with in this portfolio, Ellis had the most genuine interest and understanding of the importance of the early years and a commitment to ensuring quality and universal access. 

Sex, Lies and Question Time is compulsively readable - it is frank, honest and clear. Ellis has structured the chapters thematically - weaponising sexual gossip, slut shaming, the politics of motherhood - and the cumulative effect of reading is one of disappointment and rage. The chapter on the 'sisterhood' makes it clear that not all women are agreed on the changes needed to improve the culture - party-solidarity and threats from within also restrict women from speaking out. Fortunately, Ellis includes a chapter on why it's worth it - talking about public service and the transformative effect of progressive government policy decisions. Here she makes a convincing case for women entering politics.

One of the interesting segments is on whether women in Parliament should have spoken out louder and earlier against sexism, particularly during the Gillard years when our Prime Minister faced relentless criticism, which culminated in her now-legendary misogyny speech. The consensus, in hindsight, is that more should have been done by people in Parliament, the media and the broader public to speak out against this appalling behaviour.

Ellis finished her book prior to the current culture crisis facing Parliament and she did not know all the allegations that would surface in the lead up to publication. Reading this book mere weeks after the March for Justice - in the shadow of Brittney Higgins' rape allegations, the accusations against Christian Porter, the revolting desk incident, the Andrew Laming up-skirting and more - only serves to fuel the compelling need for change.

 

Women shouldn't have to put up with this crap anywhere.  Our Parliamentarians needs to be standard bearers, legislating to protect against sexual harassment and demanding better workplaces for all people. This disgraceful behaviour needs to be called out and swiftly dealt with. But this is not simply a 'woman's issue' - it is a matter for everyone. As Ellis writes in her introduction, 'A better parliament would mean a better Australia. That's why it should matter to all of us.' 

No Place Like Home

When I was a kid, I absolutely loved Choose Your Own Adventure books. Through reading, I could take on a role - detective, mountain climber, spy, or another exciting profession - and embark on a thrilling expedition. I might journey under the sea, travel through time, meet an abominable snowman, go to space and, depending on the path I chose, the novels would lead me to safety or peril. I loved the idea of creating my own story and the ability to re-read these books over and over with a different adventure each time. 

Decades later I have just had an adult version of this experience, through reading Intan Paramaditha's The Wandering (2020), translated by Stephen J Epstein. Longlisted for the Stella Prize, I was intrigued by the premise of the story in which the Devil offers a twenty-something Indonesian teacher, a pair of red shoes that will allow her to travel the world. The deal with the Devil will mean that she can wander, but may never find a home. 

She accepts the deal and wakes in New York City where the adventure begins. Along the way, the reader makes choices - do you go to Zagreb or Amsterdam? Do you give someone the shoes or take them with you? Some sections have headings - cafe, market, airport, wigs, hotel - and various story paths may lead the reader to the same spot. But as with all choices, there are consequences for the decisions you make. Some choices lead to positive adventures while other paths lead you to an ill-fated ending. 

What I liked about Paramaditha's book is the risk she took in crafting such a complex tale. She has woven in to the story a number of Indonesian legends, mythology and fairytales, while exploring important themes of privilege, freedom of movement, borderlands, statelessness and colonialism. The Wizard of Oz theme runs throughout the book, sometime overtly but often in a subtle way. 

I really wanted to love this book but I found that it did not work entirely well for me. After my first adventure had me staying in New York way too long, I tried again with other paths chosen and found that some versions of the tale lacked coherence. Perhaps the missing link for me was that I could not totally immerse myself in the story because I was removed from the narrator. What pleased me most about my childhood adventure choosing was that the narrator was undefined so I could become the main character in the story. In The Wandering, the narrator is defined and I never felt entirely as though I was in her shoes. 

Ultimately, the red shoes didn't quite fit me but I am glad I tried them on and wandered around for a while.