Prime Minister’s Literary awards 2025: Michelle de Kretser wins $80,000 for Theory & Practice

The Stella prize-winning author used her acceptance speech to call out the Australian government's response to the war in Gaza, in a ceremony marked by pointed political commentary from the podium

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When Michelle de Kretser decided to use her acceptance of the Stella prize in May to speak out about Israel's invasion of Gaza and the Australian government's role in the ongoing humanitarian crisis, she admitted the speech might be a career ender".

It wasn't: on Monday, De Kretser collected the $80,000 Prime Minister's Literary award for fiction for the same book, her eighth novel, Theory & Practice.

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