We are delighted that The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop has been longlisted for the Stella Prize 2024, celebrating Australian women’s writing and awarded annually to one outstanding book deemed to be original, excellent, and engaging.

The judges praised The Anniversary saying:

“Here is genre-fiction at its very best.

Stephanie Bishop’s third novel is – unabashedly – a psychological thriller. It is also a sly, meta-fictional think-piece on art-making, art-monsters and the ever-slippery erotics of power. The result is a book that is as clever as it is delicious. A masterclass in layered sophistication.

JB is a novelist whose star is on the rise. Her husband, Patrick, is an auteur film director – two decades her senior – whose star has well and truly peaked. Rumours are swirling; a reckoning is brewing. The couple take a cruise to reinvigorate their marriage. But when Patrick falls overboard, JB doesn’t quite behave “correctly”. Rather than weep and mourn, she flies to New York to accept a literary prize for a novel based on their relationship. JB has pinned all of Patrick’s unspoken cruelties to the page.

The Anniversary is a fully-realised literary achievement. From its sensuous sentences to its thrilling genre-craft to its timely cultural provocations. It is a book that could be read under a beach umbrella or in a university classroom. What price do women pay for men’s genius? What is the difference between cruelty and compromise? Whose stories do we value and believe? Whose secrets do we keep? There are no easy answers here.”

You can read more about the prize and longlist here.