Stella prize 2025: your guide to the shortlist, from Michelle de Kretser to Amy McQuire

Curated from diverse global voices, these books explore culture, identity, and justice through unique perspectives across cultural context, themes, style, and literary impact. Each offers a distinctive lens into human experience, from the personal storytelling of *Cactus Pear for My Beloved* to the critique of media representation in *Black Witness*, and their interplay between narrative and context in works like *The Last City*. Collectively, they paint a rich tapestry of cultural, thematic, and stylistic diversity.