Santilla Chingaipe’s book Black Convicts is on the Stella Prize 2025 shortlist announced in Adelaide, Australia, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
The Stella Prize is a major annual literary award celebrating Australian women and non-binary writers for an outstanding book of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. The award, worth $60,000, was established by 11 Australian women writers, editors, publishers, and booksellers who became concerned about women’s poor representation of books in Australia’s top literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, in 2013.
The 2025 jury is chaired by Astrid Edwards alongside Debra Dank, Leah Jing McIntosh, Rick Morton, and Yassmin Abdel-Magied. They announced the longlist for the award on March 4 before the shortlist, which includes Black Convicts by Zambian-born filmmaker, historian, and author, Santilla Chingaipe was revealed on Tuesday.
Santilla Chingaipe’s, who is based in Melbourne, has work that explores settler colonialism, slavery, and contemporary migration in Australia. Her work has been published by The New York Times, The Guardian, The BBC, and she is a cultural critic for The Monthly and is the founder of Behind The Screens, an annual program supported by VicScreen, aimed at increasing the representation of people historically excluded from the Australian film industry.
She responded with the statement, “deeply honoured that @blackconvicts has made this historic shortlist. And what a lineup! Thank you @thestellaprize for this incredible recognition.”
The winner will be announced on May 23, 2025.
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