Congratulations to Michelle de Kretser! Theory & Practice is one of six shortlisted titles for the 2026 Barbara Jefferis Award, which is awarded biennially to 'the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society'.
Of Theory & Practice, the judging panel said:
'Theory & Practice starts in the Swiss Alps in 1957 only to be interrupted and the reader informed, ‘At that point, the novel I was writing stalled.’ This authorial rupture sees de Kretser deploy hybrid forms to construct this intellectually rigorous novel of ideas. Now set in 1986 in St Kilda, the narrator and protagonist, a young graduate student researching Virginia Woolf, grapples with the startling gaps she finds between the theory she studies and the practice and cost of life and youth.
'Much has been said of de Kretser’s prose and here we see a writer at the height of her literary power, crafting sentences and paragraphs that feel alive with carefully considered cadence, syntax and literary style. It’s rare to see youth captured on the page in this way also. Colonialism and its many evils lie at the heart of this book and de Kretser’s light touch makes it all the more affecting and effective. This is a book to be savoured, to be read and re-read. It is a major literary achievement.'
To view the other shortlisted titles and full judges' comments, check out the Australian Society of Authors' announcement.
The winner of the 2026 Barbara Jefferis Award will be announced on 10 November 2026.
