Michelle de Kretser Wins 2025 Stella Prize for Novel Theory & Practice

Michelle de Kretser has won the 2025 Stella Prize for her novel Theory & Practice, which explores the complexities of young love, literary inheritance, and the gap between theory and practice. The novel, set in 1980s Melbourne and featuring a Sri Lankan-born graduate student researching Virginia Woolf, blurs the line between fiction and memoir through a form that challenges traditional novel structures. Judges praised the book as a "brilliantly auto fictive knot" that examines the costs and pleasures of life, with de Kretser intentionally using nonfictional devices to create a sense of formlessness and mess. Theory & Practice has been recognized for its experimental style and thematic depth, also earning nominations for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the BookPeople BookData Adult Fiction Book Of The Year. De Kretser’s work continues her reputation as an innovative writer who interrogates literary form and personal identity. The Stella Prize, which champions women and non-binary writers, highlighted the novel's sharp examination of the messiness of life and the complexities of feminist ideals versus reality.