The inaugural Stella Prize winner was announced last night at an event in Melbourne. Carrie Tiffany won for her second novel, Mateship with birds.

In accepting the award Ms Tiffany paid tribute to key Australian writers:

When I sit down to write I am anchored by all of the books I have read. My sentences would not have been possible without the sentences of Christina Stead, Thea Astley, Elizabeth Jolley, Beverley Farmer, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Helen Garner and the many other fine Australian writers that I have read and continue to read.

In its first year, The Stella Prize aimed to significantly raise the profile of Australian women's writing and awarded a monetary prize of $50,000 to the winner. To find out more about the prize and the awards night, visit The Stella Prize website. The winning novel, Mateship with birds is currently on display in the Fryer Reading Room.

Three important lists have been released over the past week in the Australian Literary Awards season.

Ahead of the announcement of the first ever Stella Prize on April 16, the shortlist was announced last Monday. The burial, Questions of travel, The sunlit zone, Like a house on fire, Sea hearts and Mateship with birds are all in contention to win the inaugural prize. As mentioned earlier, the Stella is a brand new literary prize, aimed at raising the profile of Australian women's writing.

The shortlist for the ALS Gold Medal was also released last week. The medal was first awarded to Martin Boyd in 1928. The winner will be announced on 3 July at the ASAL annual conference. The shortlisted titles are:

• Darkness on the edge of town by Jessie Cole
• Questions of travel by Michelle de Kretser
• Montebello by Robert Drewe
• Lost voices by Christopher Koch
• The fine colour of rust by P. A. O'Reilly

This morning, the 2013 longlist for Australia's leading literary award, the Miles Franklin was announced.

Tom Keneally is nominated for The daughters of Mars and Drusilla Modjeska for The mountain, which she discussed during a Friends of Fryer event last year.

M L Stedman is listed for The light between oceans, which won two prizes, including the Book of the Year Award, at last night's Indie Awards .

Carrie Tiffany's Mateship with birds is cited in both the Stella Prize shortlist and the Miles Franklin longlist, and Questions of travel by Michelle de Kretser in included in all three lists.

You can view all ten longlist titles and learn more about the Miles Franklin Award (and Reading Challenge!) online.

The items in this collection aren't just united by their quirkiness; one of the authors, Jonathan Safran Foer, describes his work as "a book that remembers it has a body" -and that's just what these books are; each one experiments with the physical book-form in order to create a story that is narrated as much through the reader's interaction with the book itself as through the words on its pages.

While these works are fascinating, during my research I often found myself thinking, 'why?'. Why tell a story by cutting-up someone else's words, as in Foer's Tree of Codes? Why tell a story that can be shuffled and read in random order, like Marc Saporta's Composition No. 1?

It is tempting to just dismiss these texts as gimmicks or novelties. However, viewed as a collection, their purpose seems clear; together, these experimental works challenge our usual expectations of the written narrative, revealing just how ingrained and invisible the conventional book-form has become.

And, of course, each offers an innovative and often remarkable story that is intriguingly bound to the paper (or toilet paper) on which it is printed.

The collection includes 31 books spanning the 14th century to the present decade. Explore these unique works for yourself through the Fryer Library's new online exhibition, Unconventional Narration.

***

Sarah Boothroyd is a writer with a weakness for quirky stories. She recently graduated from UQ with a Bachelor of Arts, and curated Unconventional Narration with the supervision and assistance of Dr Chris Tiffin at UQ.

Unconventional Narration, the latest Fryer Library online exhibition, is available to view online. It is best viewed with a Firefox, Chrome, or Safari Browser. (Previous online exhibitions are also available on our website.)

Friday, the 8th of March is International Women's Day. Celebrated internationally on this date since 1913, Women's Day recognises women for their achievements, reflects on past struggles and accomplishments, and looks forward "to the opportunities that await future generations of women".

Women rally during 1912 strike, Brisbane
Papers of Constance Healy, UQFL 191, Box 12, Folder 9.

Women and gender studies is a key collecting area for Fryer Library. You can view an overview of Fryer collections related to International Women's Day at our online exhibition or discover specfic collections in our Guide to manuscripts on Women in Politics and History.

The inaugural Stella Prize Longlist was released today. The announcement, for the first ever longlist of the best work of literature published in 2012 by an Australian woman, even trended on twitter. The award is named after one of Australia's most important female authors, Stella Maria 'Miles' Franklin.

The Stella Prize will be awarded on April 16, with the winner receiving $50,000 in prize money. The longlist is comprised of:

• Floundering by Romy Ash (Text Publishing)
• Mazin Grace by Dylan Coleman (UQP)
• The Burial by Courtney Collins (Allen & Unwin)
• The People Smuggler by Robin de Crespigny (Penguin/Viking)
• Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser (Allen & Unwin)
• Sufficient Grace by Amy Espeseth (Scribe Publications)
• The Sunlit Zone by Lisa Jacobson (5 Islands Press)
• Like a House on Fire by Cate Kennedy (Scribe Publications)
• Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)
• The Mind of a Thief by Patti Miller (UQP)
• An Opening by Stephanie Radok (Wakefield Press)
• Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany (Pan Macmillan/Picador)

As advertised in yesterday's The Australian, a call for applications has been announced for the 2013 Fryer Library award.

Each year the Fryer Library awards $10 000 and provides institutional support for a successful applicant to undertake research in Australian literature, history and culture, using the collections of the Fryer Library.

Applications are invited in the areas of Indigenous studies; History of architecture; Art and design; Theatre and literary studies; Australian history and political culture; Women's studies.

We asked this year's recipient, Dr D'Arcy Randall, to describe her experience as the 2012 Fryer Library award winner:

The generous Fryer fellowship helped me extend a literary history project that turned out to be more complex than I anticipated. The library staff provided expert advice and help on every level, from negotiating paperwork to connecting me with other scholars in my field. I was heartened by the interest shown in my work. Finally, it was a pleasure to work in that beautiful quiet space for a season, and simply to hear myself think.

To find out more about applying for 2013, you can find links to guidelines, referee reports, and the application form on our website.

For further enquiries regarding the Award, please contact the Manager, Fryer Library via email (fryer@library.uq.edu.au) or telephone (07 3365 6205).

Applications close: 1 February 2013.