“At the very least I wanted to make people focus on an actual more honest rendering of these canonical texts of Australian literature ... We were not visible in these stories because we were not meant to exist in these narratives.” 

On Thursday 12 May, Evelyn Araluen joined host Jeanine Leane live on stage at the Wheeler Centre to discuss her debut poetry collection Dropbear and its landmark win. 

For 10 years, the Stella Prize has celebrated books by Australian women and non-binary writers. The annual $50,000 prize is awarded to the work of fiction, non-fiction, YA, graphic novel or (eligible for the first time in 2022) poetry deemed most original, excellent and engaging. This year, Stella has awarded a further $10,000 to Araluen – bringing the total prize money for the winner of the 2022 Stella Prize to $60,000. 

The Stella judges said ‘Dropbear is a breathtaking collection of poetry and short prose which arrests key icons of mainstream Australian culture and turns them inside out, with malice aforethought. Araluen’s brilliance sizzles when she goes on the attack against the kitsch and the cuddly: against Australia’s fantasy of its own racial and environmental innocence.’ 

This event was presented in partnership with Stella.

The bookseller for this event was Hill of Content.