THE STELLA PRIZE SCHOOLS PROGRAM EDUCATION RESOURCE KIT He Stella Prize Is a Major New Literary Award Celebrating Australian Women’S Writing
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THE STELLA PRIZE SCHOOLS PROGRAM EDUCATION RESOURCE KIT he Stella Prize is a major new literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing. TAnd just as the prize itself seeks to recognise and support women writers, and bring more readers to their work, the new Stella Prize Schools Program aims to provide role models for girls, encourage the inclusion of more texts by Australian women on school syllabi, and promote wider reading of books by female authors among both girls and boys. This Stella Prize Schools Program Education Kit offers teaching notes on all the Stella Prize shortlisted books to date. These teaching notes, for Years 10 to 12, are divided into three broad themes – Identity, History and Place – and all of the notes include links to the Australian Curriculum. You’ll also find information on the Stella Prize and some of the issues the prize seeks to address, and a set of general questions that can be applied to any text. For Years 7 to 10, we have included an extensive list of great recent books by Australian women. For all year levels, there are reading questions, discussion ideas and extension activities, plus lots of useful links. The Stella Prize Schools Program speakers in schools project launches this year with a Victorian pilot featuring: Clare Wright, Carrie Tiffany, Cate Kennedy, Amy Espeseth, Tony Birch, Kirsty Murray, Bec Kavanagh, Louise Swinn, Myke Bartlett and Jacinta Halloran. Further details are on our website at: www.thestellaprize.com.au/resources/ schools-program/ To enquire about booking a Stella Prize Schools Program speaker, please contact the Stella Prize at [email protected] or Booked Out speakers agency: [email protected] / (03) 9824 0177. This Victorian pilot program was made possible by the generous support of the Readings Foundation and the Andyinc Foundation. Once further funding is secured, the speakers’ program will be offered in other states and territories, so stay tuned. And if you’d like to consider making a donation to the Stella Prize, visit www.thestellaprize.com.au Our warmest thanks for their support go to Mark Rubbo at the Readings Foundation, and to Kerry Gardner and Andrew Myer at the Andyinc Foundation; and, for all their hard work, to Bec Kavanagh, Nikki Lusk and Susan Miller (respectively, the writer, editor and designer of this education kit); as well as to Simon Clarke for the striking new Stella Prize Schools Program logo. We have been delighted by the early response to the Stella Prize Schools Program. We hope that this kit brings lively discussion, fresh ideas and a great deal of reading pleasure to your classroom. Let your students be inspired by Australian women’s writing, and help them – girls and boys alike – to build their own brilliant careers. Best wishes, Aviva Tuf field Executive Director, The Stella Prize Contents Introduction 1 Identity 7 Cate Kennedy, Like a House on Fire 9 Anna Krien, Night Games 15 Margo Lanagan, Sea Hearts 19 Fiona McFarlane, The Night Guest 23 History 27 Clare Wright, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka 29 Hannah Kent, Burial Rites 33 Kristina Olsson, Boy, Lost 37 Courtney Collins, The Burial 41 Place 45 Carrie Tiffany, Mateship with Birds 47 Michelle de Kretser, Questions of Travel 51 Lisa Jacobson, The Sunlit Zone 55 Alexis Wright, The Swan Book 59 Comparative essay questions 63 The Stella Prize for younger readers 65 TEACHING NOTES Reading the Stella Prize ‘I am living proof that a women-only prize can be career changing … Yes, a prize for women’s writing wouldn’t be necessary in an ideal world, but that isn’t the world we live in.’ Kate Grenville his section is a basic resource that can be used across all secondary-school levels. TIt provides information about the Stella Prize and other literary prizes, as well as a set of general reading questions that can be applied to any text. The appendix includes: financial independence and thus time to focus ✦ The Stella Prize on their writing ✦ ✦ Core values of the Stella Prize combat unconscious bias and generate cultural change so that women’s writing, stories and ✦ The Stella Prize books voices are valued as highly as those of men ✦ Relevant statistics The Stella Prize runs events and lectures at ✦ Women in time bookshops, festivals and universities around Australia, ✦ References and compiles the annual Stella Count, tracking the THE STELLA PRIZE number of books by men and women reviewed in our major newspapers and literary magazines. About The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Why have a prize just for women? Australian women’s writing. Women-only literary prizes can be seen as part and The prize is named after one of Australia’s iconic parcel of broader efforts to promote greater equality female authors, Stella Maria Sarah ‘Miles’ Franklin, between men and women. It was not much more than and was awarded for the first time in 2013. Both 100 years ago, in 1902, that women received the right nonfiction and fiction books by Australian women are to vote in Australia. While things have changed a lot eligible for entry. in the intervening years, many inequalities persist. Consider that: The Stella Prize seeks to: ✦ Australia voted in its first female prime ✦ recognise and celebrate Australian women minister only 4 years ago writers’ contribution to literature ✦ In the 100 highest-grossing films of 2013 ✦ bring more readers to books by women and in the US, females comprised just 30% of thus increase their sales all speaking characters and 15% of main ✦ provide role models for girls and opportunities protagonists1 for emerging female writers ✦ reward one writer with a $50,000 prize – money that buys a writer some measure of 1 http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2013_It's_a_Man's_ World_Report.pdf thestellaprize.com.au/resources/schools-program/ 1 IntroductIon ✦ Women still do more unpaid work2 in carer or a third of the time; the statistics for nonfiction are volunteer positions and are routinely paid less3 even worse. than men for doing the exact same work After the panel, a group of women met to discuss This inequality exists in literature as well. As the list what to do next. They decided to do something of statistics provided at the end of this section reveals, positive to raise the profile of women writers and women tend to win our major literary awards far address their under-representation in the literary less frequently than men, and their books are also world, and so plans for the Stella Prize were born. reviewed less often in our major newspapers and Two years later, in April 2013, the Stella Prize was literary journals. awarded for the first time to Carrie Tiffany for her This inequality isn’t stopping women from writing, novel Mateship with Birds. but prizes and reviews can make a huge difference to Why does gender inequality matter? a writer. They boost book sales and enhance a writer’s Entrenched gender inequality in the literary world reputation; they can provide much-needed financial is more than a problem just for female writers, or support, and often lead to other offers of paid work, even just for women and girls. In her TED talk4, including invitations to attend writers’ festivals both Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about the danger within Australia and overseas. For a writer to have of a single story. By this she means the presentation a financially viable career and be taken seriously, of a person or group of people that is so narrow in its this fiscal and critical recognition can make all the vision that we are unable to distinguish their human difference. complexities from the single story that we have come In 1991 the all-male shortlist for the prestigious to associate with them. Maybe they’re poor. Maybe Man Booker Prize acted as the catalyst for the they’re black. Maybe they’re a woman. establishment of the Baileys Women’s Prize for The under-representation of women in the Australian Fiction (originally called the Orange Prize). A similar literary world means that: desire to address inequality in the literary world was the basis for the foundation of the Stella Prize. ✦ women and girls are likely to have access to fewer stories of where they have come The Stella Prize Story from and fewer images of what their future Dreams of the Stella Prize emerged in early 2011 might be out of a panel held on International Women’s Day. ✦ women and girls may feel that their The panel was partly a discussion about the under- experiences and views are less important than representation of women on the literary pages of the those of men and boys and, as a consequence, major Australian newspapers, both as reviewers and may be less inclined to share them as authors of the books reviewed. For example, in ✦ the story of what it means to be Australian 2011, 70% of the books reviewed in The Weekend that we tell ourselves, and the rest of the Australian’s books pages were written by men. world, is the story of only some of us The panel also discussed the under-representation of women as winners of literary prizes. In early 2011, Does inequality exist even in YA literature? The gender bias is there in YA (young adult) only 9 individual women had ever won the Miles literature, and it’s there in picture books. One large- Franklin Literary Award over its 54-year history. scale study5 showed that children’s books were almost This under-representation is evident across all the twice as likely to contain a male central character major prizes.