The Stella Prize will be an annual literary prize for Australian women’s writing.

It will raise the profile of women’s writing, and will reward one writer with a $50,000 prize. The shortlisted and winning books will be widely publicised and marketed in order to bring readers to the work of Australian women writers.

In short, the Stella Prize will celebrate and recognise Australian women’s writing, encourage a future generation of women writers, and significantly increase the readership for books by women.

I will be entering this event and I urge other female writers to do the same to make this as important an event as every other major prize.