For the first time in its 14-year history, the Stella Prize has been awarded to a graphic novel, with Australian cartoonist and writer Lee Lai taking out the 2026 award with Cannon.
The annual $60,000 literary prize, which celebrates outstanding writing by Australian women and non-binary authors, announced Cannon as this year’s winner on Thursday evening, marking a major moment not only for Lai, but for graphic storytelling more broadly.
In a statement, Stella CEO and Creative Director Fiona Sweet described the book as “a triumph of the form”, praising Lai’s ability to use the visual language of comics to move readers through “melancholic atmospheres” and “crowded, tense palpable scenes that explode from the page”.
“Cannon is a cinematic experience,” Sweet said. “This win will expose Cannon, a truly exceptional feat of the graphic novel form, to new readers nationwide.”
The novel follows Lucy “Cannon” — known variously as Cannon, Luce and Lucy — a queer second-generation Chinese woman balancing the demands of family, friendship and work while approaching breaking point. By day, she cares for her ageing grandfather while supporting her emotionally distant mother. By night, she works in the high-pressure kitchen of a fine dining restaurant. In between, she's an emotional caretaker to her best friend Trish, in a relationship that is slowly beginning to splinter with resentment.
The Stella judges described the novel as “a compelling depiction of a fracturing friendship between two queer, second-generation Chinese women”, calling it “an incontestable reminder that — in the hands of a masterful artist and storyteller — the very best graphic novels can do what prose alone cannot.”
Already internationally acclaimed, Cannon continues a remarkable run for Lai, whose debut graphic novel Stone Fruit was shortlisted for the 2022 Stella Prize. The author, who is currently based in Canada, has also previously won both the Ignatz Award and the Lambda Literary Award.
This year’s judging panel — comprising Gee, Benjamin Law, Ellen van Neerven, Jaclyn Crupi and Gillian O’Shaughnessy — selected Cannon after an extensive evaluation process spanning fiction, nonfiction and poetry published throughout 2025.
Previous winners of the Stella Prize include Michelle de Kretser for Theory & Practice, Alexis Wright for Praiseworthy and Tracker, and Evelyn Araluen for Dropbear.
Following the announcement, Lai will appear at a series of events across Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney throughout May, including appearances at the Sydney Writers' Festival and Melbourne Art Book Fair.
