Alexis Wright wins the Melbourne Literature Prize

2 minute(s) ·  November 14, 2024

Alexis Wright, the first Aboriginal author to win the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature, has had a landmark year with multiple major awards for her novel Praiseworthy, which explores Indigenous resilience and survival, adding to broader recognition of First Nations writers in 2024.

Waanyi author Alexis Wright has won the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature, becoming the first Aboriginal writer to receive this award, which celebrates a Victorian writer’s outstanding impact on Australian literature and culture. Wright’s win crowns an extraordinary year, as she also took home the Stella Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and the UK’s James Tait Black Prize for Fiction, largely for her 730-page novel Praiseworthy. 

Praiseworthy, set in a fictional northern Australian town, follows Cause Man Steel, a “culture dreamer” with a plan involving donkeys to address both climate change and Aboriginal economic independence. The novel, lauded by critics for its powerful, layered language, explores themes of survival, resilience, and Indigenous identity amid global and environmental crises.

This recognition adds to a landmark year for First Nations writers: Melissa Lucashenko won the $100,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize and other awards for Edenglassie; SJ Norman received a South Australian Literary Award for Permafrost; and Ali Cobby Eckermann won Book of the Year at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards for She Is the Earth. 

Wright’s writing journey reflects her commitment to sharing Indigenous perspectives, as she sought to capture First Nations culture as she knew it, inspired by other writers deeply connected to their own cultures. Her first major success, Carpentaria, nearly unpublished, addresses tensions with a multinational mining company in a fictional Aboriginal community, while The Swan Book, set in a climate-altered Australia, imagines future challenges for Indigenous peoples. For over 40 years, Wright has woven themes of cultural survival and resilience into her work, seeking to inspire empathy and understanding for the shared struggles of humanity.