INTERSECTIONALITY
Diverse visibility in the Australian publishing space
Eryn Mayfield and Katerina Poupounaki
The Australian literary scene
Australian literary culture has seen an increased focus on gender equity over the past decade, driven in part by campaigns from organisations like Stella. Established in 2012 as a response to the documented disparity between women and men in both reviews and awards, Stella has become a central force in reshaping how gender is perceived within the Australian publishing industry. The Stella Count suggests that male and female authors reached equity in publication and review rates for the first time ever in 2020. The Black Lives Matter movement served as a catalyst for three of the Big Five publishers (Hachette, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster) where they pledged to diversify the publishing industry. While this progress does suggest meaningful change, it also raises questions about how that change has spread beyond advocacy and into the publishing industry.
Current Australian publishing landscape
Stella is a literary organisation that exists to ‘create a more equitable and vibrant national culture’ for women and non-binary authors. Author and founder of Stella, Louise Swinn, describes Stella as a harbinger of systemic change, crediting its establishment with ‘the beginning of the (long overdue) publishing industry’s public reckoning with gender visibility’. Beginning at a 2011 Readings panel held on International Women’s Day, the conceptualisation of Stella emerged in response to a ‘stark imbalance’ within the publishing industry—male writers were dominating reviews and prizes. Stella came into fruition a year later, introducing a series of initiatives that advocate for women and non-binary writers in the industry.
Statistical analysis of gender bias in Australian book reviewing was initiated by the Stella Count, which annually collects and distributes data on the gender of authors and reviewers.
Key findings from the 2019/2020 Stella Count suggests that:
Women authors now receive equal attention in Australian book reviews for the first time in the Count’s history
9 out of 12 of the publications surveyed continue to review the same number, or more, of women authors as men authors
Non-binary writers are becoming more visible in our community
Women authors mostly review genres including fiction, children’s and Young Adult (YA)
The 2022 National Survey of Australian Book Authors echoes similar results with records of close to two-thirds of the author population being occupied by women, who are generally writing across children’s books (81.3%), genre fiction (75.3%), other nonfiction (69.6%) and literary fiction (70.5%). Statistically, female writers and reviewers are surpassing their male counterparts in most areas of the publishing industry.
Case study: gender, recognition and literary awards
Fiscal support and cultural prestige, once inaccessible for women in the industry, are accessible via the Stella Prize, an annual literary award for an original book written by an Australian woman or non-binary writer. Winners receive significant funding in line with Stella's commitment to enhancing the status—culturally and financially—of women and non-binary writers. The prize is provocative and performative; it has the power to influence reader tastes and book sales, thus having the authority to declare who and what is worthy of production and consumption.
Equity-based campaigns like the Stella Count and Stella Prize are bound to the canonical patterns they claim to resist. This is the core of Natalie Kon-yu’s research. Stella’s primary functions—to critique the industry and gatekeep it—are paradoxical; women’s disadvantage in the industry is not only publicised but, in some ways, reinforced. Stella promotes a false sense of universality in its implication that women’s experiences of bias within the literary industry are the result of sexist discourse, negating the relevance of race. After five consecutive wins by white women writers, the Stella Prize was awarded to a woman of colour for the first time in 2018.
Value is what is in question here. Who holds it, who prescribes it and why. Marian Wright Edelman, American activist and former president of the Children's Defence Fund, sees value in connection:
This case study analyses gender representation across three key Australian literary awards to assess how advocacy by organisations such as Stella has shifted the balance of literary authority between men and women. Three major literary prizes are compared: the Stella Prize, the Miles Franklin Award and the Australian Book Industry Award, and collectively evaluated to understand how gender is represented and recognised in Australia’s literary award scene. The analysis is based on a review of award winners from 2020–2025, recording the authors’ gender identities and genres to examine how gender intersects with current standards of literary value and recognition.
It is important to note that this sample size is small and non-exhaustive. There are many factors this case study does not consider such as ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses. Therefore, it is not a full reflection of the industry.
Miles Franklin Award
Five of the 6 winners in this sample are women, with Siang Lu being the only male-identifying winner. This is a significant departure from the award’s historically male-dominated past, with only 24 women winning it in its entire 68-year history. The shift in the demographic of Miles Franklin Award recipients points to a shift in industry and cultural expectations around representation. However, the continued focus on literary fiction suggests that access to this recognition remains tied to a narrowed definition of literary value. The award’s criteria, which claims to favour books of ‘the highest literary merit’, privilege certain forms of writing, particularly serious, realistic and introspective literary fiction.
The Australian Book Industry Award
The ‘Book of the Year’ category at the Australian Book Industry Awards presents a more varied, consumer-driven selection of winners, boasting a very diverse list since 2020. The winners are an equal mix of women and men from across a diverse range of genres. This aligns much more closely with the national survey of authors, in which 69.8% identified as women, 28.4% as men and only 1.2% as non-binary or gender-diverse. However, male authors remain prominent, particularly in non-fiction categories such as biography and true crime, highlighting a continued divide in perceived literary and information authority.
The Stella Prize
Stella, the organisation behind the literary award, states its purpose is to ‘promote books by Australian women and non-binary writers in all their diversity, support greater participation in the world of literature and create a more equitable and vibrant national culture’. The Stella Prize was created to bridge the kinds of gaps in gender equality that have historically burdened awards like the Miles Franklin. In an interview, Louise Swinn states that ‘in many ways, Stella has succeeded in changing the conversation’. But its separation from the mainstream prestigious awards: the state awards, premier awards, the Miles Franklin award, suggests that gender equity is still contained within a dedicated space, rather than being fully accepted and embraced across Australia’s literary world.
Comparing the prizes
Overall, a comparison of these 3 award types highlight that gender equity in the Australian literary world is unevenly distributed. The Miles Franklin Award demonstrates clear progress in cultural influence, with majority of recent winners being women. However, this progress remains constrained by a narrow definition of literary value, where recognition is limited to specific genres and modes of writing. The Stella Prize follows a similar pattern to the Miles Franklin, with many of the winning books being introspective novels. In contrast, the consumer prizes, such as the Australian Book Industry Awards, are more diverse and accessible to authors and audiences. While gender representation is relatively balanced (though skewing towards women) patterns within the non-fiction categories suggest that men are still viewed as informational and a literary authority. Interestingly, this is also reflected in the Stella Count, with women featured more strongly in reviews of fiction, children and YA literature.
The Stella Prize continues to play a significant role in reshaping the conversation around gender and recognition as its own existence engages with systematic issues it seeks to address. While progress is being made, the distribution of authority, cultural value and literary merit remains stratified, with these advancements in gender equity not yet being fully embraced by the core institutions of the literary industry. As stated by Louise Swinn, ‘visibility isn’t equality … the Australian publishing industry today reflects a more complicated landscape—and structural inequities persist.’
Case study: gender, race and how consumers read
As part of our investigation into gender visibility, this case study interrogates reading and consumer habits. We are interested in who people are reading and why they are reading them.
There are limitations to our sample size of participants and stores visited, but also our research more widely, which does not address race and diversity to the same extent as gender. We have tried our best given structural restrictions and would like to acknowledge that gender is intersectional and should be recognised as such by the publishing industry.
Our results show that 66.7% of participants are not swayed by the author's gender when choosing a book to read, citing genre preferences as their main incentive.
Interestingly, several responses illuminate the inextricable link between genre and gender:
‘I think that in science fiction, unfortunately, there aren’t many popular female/non-binary authors so it seems access is limited, but I don’t really think about it that much’.
‘I mostly read sapphic and/or queer novels, so I wouldn't ever read lesbian romances that've been written by men, only women or non-binary/gender queer authors’.
‘Probably more drawn to stories and themes around femininity overall but not as a rule’.
Most participants describe their reading habits as subconscious, although their responses indicate otherwise. The following explanations succeed ‘No’ responses to the survey question:
Why diverse publishing is limited
A survey was conducted in 2018 to determine which publishers are publishing the most diverse books. Disappointingly, 79% of the overall industry is white, with editorial departments at 82%. The current data warrants our survey and begs the question of where exactly these books by diverse authors are coming from. Director of Spinifex Press, Susan Hawthorne’s assertion that independent publishers are ‘original seeds, the matrices, the sources of cultural diversity’ seems baseless after being met with an obvious lack of ‘bibliodiversity’ on our bookshop excursion around Naarm/Melbourne.
In 2015, Australian lawyer Sunili Govinnage wrote about the difficulty of discovering books by non-white authors, citing the whitewashing of trusted reading resources like book reviews, bestseller lists, literary awards and Amazon recommendations. Govinnage’s article is preceded by years of discourse surrounding the whiteness of the publishing industry, including author and social commentator Roxane Gay’s survey of New York Times articles published in 2012. Nearly 90% of the reviewed books were written by white writers.
This is why Amplify Bookstore exists: ‘a space dedicated to making it easier for you to find BIPOC authors and books you can see yourself reflected in’. Owners Marina and Xuan, both people of colour, hope that customers turn to Amplify to diversify their bookshelves, because reading widely and diversely is just as important. It proves that not only do BIPOC books sell, but they hold value (something the industry has yet to realise).
Looking to the future
When we think about what it is to be ‘connected,’ we think about memory. We think about history. We think about storytelling. All of these words that we hear—‘literacy,’ ‘inclusion,’ ‘diversity’—those are all words for connection ... we need to have diverse books ... not because necessarily everybody needs to see themselves reflected in every book, but because we need that sense of connection. We need to live in a global sense.
The findings on visible representation were consistent across both studies: representation of diverse peoples in literary spaces has come a long way, but more needs to be done to ensure continued, meaningful growth. Regarding gender, Stella and its contemporaries have made a lot of progress towards creating equal and equitable spaces for women and non-binary people. However, a lot of this visibility exists largely within curated spaces. While awards like the Miles Franklin have become notably more diverse, you can still see the gendered authority of men when it comes to who gets to win what awards. This manifests in male authors’ domination of nonfiction prizes, while female authors’ reign in more ‘artistic’ genres. Ultimately, there is still more to do to ensure this progress continues. While equity campaigns like Stella and the efforts of independent bookstores like Amplify are changing how diversity is represented and accepted in literary spaces, it simply is not enough. For continued change, we must encourage diversity in all its shapes and challenge the institutions that maintain outdated systems of recognition and authority. In the words of Pham Camha; ‘To diversify the writing landscape, we need to turn our gaze inward to look at the gatekeepers and power structures that dominate these spaces’.
Key Points
In her essay analysing the relationship between literary prizes and public reception, Alexandra Dane (2020b:151) pinpoints that
The problem wasn’t the 2011 shortlist alone, but rather the repetition and reinforcement of a longer trend that had been present in Australia and in its literary landscape since the first literary prize was introduced (Cunningham 2011; Lamond 2011; Dane 2020a).
In her essay analysing the relationship between literary prizes and public reception, Alexandra Dane (2020b:151) pinpoints that:
‘If I've just read 3-4 books by male authors in a row then I might try to read some female authors next’.
‘I don't consciously select a book solely based on the gender of the author. While I suspect I am naturally, possibly even subconsciously, attracted to books written by women, it is not something I am consciously aware of’.
‘While I do generally prefer reading books by women and non-binary authors, I also read books written by men occasionally and enjoy them, but I find it more difficult to relate to the characters as they are often men’.
One ‘No’ response refers to gender as an ‘unreliable indicator of quality’. By contrast, ‘Yes’ responses note the importance of having a point of commonality with the author, while others describe a willingness to broaden their own literary canons:
‘It's a part of my ethos to read more widely, although most of the books I pick up by chance end up being written by women and trans people anyway’.
We also asked participants to consider race in relation to gender and readership. The statistical response to the posed question: ‘Do you make a conscious effort to read books written by women or non-binary people of colour’ are split 33.3% each to answers ‘Yes’, ‘Sometimes’ and ‘No’. The results informed a two-fold purpose: that the consumers preferred genre determines whose work they read and, on an industry level, that reading books by non-white women and non-binary writers must be prioritised to readdress the imbalance within the publishing landscape.
How equity is viewed in brick-and-mortar stores
A question about the visibility of books by women or non-binary people of colour in local bookstores produced a common response that said those books were generally visible but only in their designated areas. Participants pointed out differences between chain and independent booksellers, noting that books by women or non-binary authors of colour are more prevalent in the latter. Two responses referenced Amplify Bookstore, a bookseller of strictly non-white authored books, one of which reads as follows: ‘For stores like Amplify, where it's the main focus, it is extremely visible—but when you compare that to a chain store such as Dymocks or Readings, it becomes apparent that one has to put in a conscious effort to find authors that are female, non-binary, or POC’.
We visited Book Grocer Northcote (independent), Hill of Content Melbourne CBD (independent) and Dymocks Melbourne CBD (chain) on 1 May 2026, to confirm our results. Of the 36 titles in the window of Book Grocer, around half of them are written by female authors, with a handful by women of colour (Fig. 5). Titles by female authors populate the display at Dymocks but these women are overwhelmingly white. Hill of Content has 21 titles by women out of 41 titles in their window display, but fewer than 5 are by women of colour.
Despite a willingness to diversify their bookshelves, consumers’ reading choices are generally genre-driven and homogeneous. For example, a fan of science fiction might only read books written by white men because of their dominance in the genre. This calls for greater initiative on the part of the publisher and the bookseller to promote books written by people other than men (in particular white men) otherwise people will not read more widely.
‘I am queer, I like to read books written by people like me who have similar experiences or are interested in similar themes’.