Library News

2024 Stella Prize

Stella has announced the winner of the 2024 Stella Prize:

Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy

Wright, a 73-year-old Waayni writer has made history by becoming the first person to win the $60,000 Stella prize for literature twice.

Wright also won the Stella in 2018 for Tracker, her nonfiction collective memoir on the Indigenous leader and activist Tracker Tilmouth.

In an interview after receiving the prize, Wright spoke of how she worked on Tracker and Praiseworthy simultaneously, with the 736-page Praiseworthy taking almost a decade to complete.

Please click on the link to read more about Wright, her inspiration for the winning book and to discover all the SHORTLISTED books for the prize:  2024 Stella Prize

The Age 2024 Fiction Book of the Year Award

Congratulations to Australian author Tony Birch whose latest novel Women & Children has won The Age 2024 Fiction Book of the Year Award.

During the opening night of the Melbourne Writer’s Festival the fiction judges described the novel about domestic violence as “a book that will live with you”.

The judges awarded the Nonfiction prize to Ross McMullin for Life So Full of Promise a biography interwoven with stories about Australia’s lost generation of World War 1. 

Melbourne Writers Festival 

The Melbourne Writers Festival program has launched with a four-day literary line up from 8-12 May. Our students at Beaumaris Secondary College are encouraged to go along, please click on the link for the full program. 

Melbourne Writers Festival (mwf.com.au)

Literature Lesson - Interview with the Vampire 

For our wonderful VCE Literature students currently studying Bram Stoker’s Dracula, here is a lesson not to be missed!  Literature Lesson - Writers Victoria 

Writers Victoria outlines the key ideas artist and writer Diego Ramirez will teach:

• key vampire films inspired by books, from Dracula to Twilight
• the physical evolution of the vampire on screen
• the psychological evolution of the vampire on screen
• how theory explains some of these vampires, e.g. Postcolonialism, Marxism
• contemporary depictions of the vampire, beyond the page and screen

WHEN: Wednesday 15th May 6.30pm-7.30pm

WHERE: The Wheeler Centre176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne 

CONTACT: Phone: (03) 9917 8463

Email: program@writersvictoria.org.au

Featured Books   

The City of Ember series is a must-read for all our students who enjoy dystopian fiction with a dash of mystery and adventure. Author Jeanne DuPrau leads readers on a journey through a mysterious underground city, Ember, a city full of secrets where characters are part of a post-apocalyptic society struggling to survive. Themes include friendship, courage, and the search for truth. 

Book Club 2024

Come and join us in the library if you’d like to chat about the book you are reading and the latest releases in our collection. Book Club runs at lunch time every Wednesday. 

All students and year levels are welcome!

Student ID Cards

A reminder to all students that your Compass Student ID card is also your library card. Please bring your student ID card to the library when you would like to borrow.

Library Opening Hours 

Make your way up to S3 on the Southern level! 

• Monday - Thursday 
• 9.30am-2.30pm.

The library is open at recess and lunchtime.

Niamh McPhelimy 

Library Manager