British Australian author Evie Wyld has won the $50,000 Stella Prize for Australian women and non-binary writers for her third novel, The Bass Rock
The novel, a gothic tale hailed by the judges as "a true work of art", is about "the legacy of male violence and the ways in which these traumas ripple and reverberate across time and place".
The Bass Rock is set in North Berwick on the coast of Scotland and spans 300 years, focusing on three female protagonists: a teen in the 1700s who is persecuted for being a "witch"; a housewife in the 1950s who feels isolated in a new town and a new marriage; and a 30-something woman in the present, who Wyld has joked is a "thinly veiled portrait of me".
"She's someone who is sort of stuck in a bit of a cycle or a cross between self-loathing and boredom. She does stuff that is not good for her — and not in a loud, exciting [way]."
Each woman in Wyld's novel is damaged in some way through their relationships or encounters with violent men; each, as Wyld says, "rebels in their own way" — against society's expectations of what a woman should be or do.
Speaking to the ABC from London, where she lives and is part-owner of an independent bookstore, Wyld said receiving the Stella Prize was particularly special given the pandemic and the UK's lockdowns.
"It feels like springtime again, getting the Stella."
She says the money received from being longlisted and shortlisted for the Stella Prize had also been crucial (longlisted authors receive $1,000 each; shortlisted authors receive an additional $2,000).
"Honestly, I was so broke this year that I've lived on that money entirely. It really does mean that I don't have to look for work elsewhere and so I can get on with writing."
The alternative income streams for Wyld, as for many writers, are lecturing, book tours and writers' festivals.
Before COVID hit, Wyld was teaching part time at a university in Kent.
"I quite enjoyed the teaching side of things, but the stuff around it takes up all of your time — especially if you're dyslexic, like me. Being faced with a form to fill out, like a timesheet, spins you out," she said.
"It became this really time-consuming thing, and I could see that I wasn't going to write another book."
When the pandemic came and classes moved online, she quit that job.
At the same time, all her speaking gigs and book tours disappeared overnight (she was due to be in Australia twice in 2020), which also affected book sales.
"I probably wouldn't have written a second novel had I not won a small prize with my first book — because you just wouldn't have the time."
In her acceptance speech, delivered at an online ceremony on Thursday night, Wyld said: "This pandemic feels like an experiment in how much women can be forced to absorb, as they take on the majority of unpaid work and child care during lockdown. Globally, domestic abuse cases rose dramatically."
She spoke of the murder of British woman Sarah Everard, as she walked home, and the subsequent resurfacing of the #notallmen hashtag in the public discourse.
Wyld continued:
"When I first thought about writing this book, in which the central idea was that all the violence ever committed against women was committed by the same malign presence, I thought it would have to be a high concept, speculative, full-of-magic-monsters kind of novel.
But as I wrote it, I came to see that the power of this story came from the threads that bound these three women in their common experience. The problem is that it's not a monster — it's part of the fabric of everything.
The poisonous narratives that lead women to believe that their safety is worth less than male dignity begin with the messages about what sort of work matters — that male work does matter; that female work does not.
This prize continues to say loudly that the work of women and non-binary writers matter — and for that I am extremely grateful."
The Bass Rock is out now through Penguin Random House.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiY2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTA0LTIyL3N0ZWxsYS1wcml6ZS13aW5uZXItZXZpZS13eWxkLXRoZS1iYXNzLXJvY2stZ290aGljLzEwMDA4NjYyMNIBKGh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMDAwODY2MjA?oc=5
2021-04-22 09:57:20Z
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