Stella Literary Evening 2024

The Stella Society warmly invites you to the 7th MGGS Stella Literary Evening. This year, we will be joined by Laura Elizabeth Woollett to discuss her latest book West Girls, which was longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize.

The Stella Society, in conjunction with students from MGS, will present their reflections on West Girls before interviewing Laura and engaging with the audience about her work.

Stella Literary Evening
Date: Tuesday 23 July
Time: 6.00pm - 8.00pm
Location: Artemis Learning Commons
Level 2, Artemis Centre
62 Anderson Street
South Yarra 3141
Enter via gate D
Light refreshments provided

Please RSVP by Tuesday 16 July.

This event is free to attend, however donations towards the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) would be greatly appreciated. By donating to ILF you are supporting the supply and publication of culturally relevant books and teaching resources to children in remote schools and communities across Australia.  We feel this is a most appropriate organisation for our support following our reading of Evelyn Araluen's poems in Dropbear in 2022.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura Elizabeth Woollett is the author of a short story collection, The Love of a Bad Man (2016), and three novels, Beautiful Revolutionary (2018), The Newcomer (2021), and West Girls (2023). The Love of a Bad Man was shortlisted for the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. Beautiful Revolutionary was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. Her writing has appeared in Kill Your Darlings, Sydney Review of Books and The Irish Times, among others. She has been the recipient of grants and residencies, including an Asialink Arts Residency in Jakarta (2017) and the City of Melbourne’s Boyd Garret Residency (2020). Born and raised in Perth, she is currently based in Melbourne.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Luna Lewis is white. But her friends aren’t, nor are her brothers, nor her one-time Princess of Indonesia–finalist stepmother. After transforming from pudgy preteen to ‘exotic’ beauty, Luna reinvents herself as ‘Luna Lu’ and takes her ticket out of the most isolated city on earth. However, as her international modelling career approaches its expiry date, Luna must grapple with what she’s sacrificed — and who she’s become — in her mission to conquer the world.

Featuring an intersecting cast of glamour-hungry public schoolgirls, WAGs, mining heiresses, backpacker-barmaids, and cosmetic nurses, West Girls examines beauty, race, class divisions, and social mobility in Australia’s richest state. It’s also a devastating catalogue of the myriad, inventive ways in which women love and hurt one another.

ABOUT THE STELLA PRIZE
The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women and non-binary writers, and is an organisation that champions cultural change. The Stella Schools Program aims to inspire change and to empower students – girls and boys alike – by encouraging them to critically engage with their own reading habits and imagine a future not limited by their gender. Click here for more information on The Stella Prize.

For enquiries and updating contact details, email community@mggs.vic.edu.au or call
(03) 9862 9200.