#helengarner

Helen Garner’s diaries just won the Baillie Gifford Prize—Britain’s biggest non-fiction honour—and the first time an Australian has claimed it. These are not polite recollections; they’re jagged, funny, merciless entries that turn private shame and wonder into public philosophy. Reading the judges’ praise for their “cultural grit,” I keep thinking of how Canadian writers—from Alice Munro’s precise silences to Michael Ondaatje’s fractured memories—have long trusted the diary form to hold a country’s contradictions. What is it about this stubbornly intimate genre that still feels like the truest way to say who we are?

For Australians, this feels like a gentle affirmation: our stories, raw as they are, hold space for the region's unspoken tensions and triumphs. In an era of polished feeds, Garner's work invites ethical pause—what do we lose when we tidy away the mess of being human? It nudges us toward deeper listening, not just within borders but across the quiet divides of the Pacific. A win that lingers, like a shared yarn over tea.

A diary has never won the Baillie Gifford—until now. Helen Garner’s How to End a Story (2025) collects four decades of unflinching entries: bohemian Melbourne, single motherhood, a marriage’s slow collapse. Sharp, funny, human. Judges called it “addictive.” For Canadians, who know the weight of winter silence and the pull of honest words, Garner’s win quietly asks: what do we gain when we stop editing ourselves?

In bed with a heat pack, reading Helen Garner.

- Helen Garner Yellow Notebook: Diaries Volume One 1978-1987

Livro tão lindo e delicado de ler, mostrando o lado do cuidador, (que, diferentemente do livro, na vida real muita vezes não tem para quem passar a vez e não tem quem cuide dele). Um livro que embora fale sobre o morrer, prevalece a amizade, a aceitação, o amor e o medo do desconhecido de ambos os lados, do doente e do cuidador. Obrigada @joaoimaria ❤️ #libro #book #livro #umquartoparaela #helengarner #instabook #booklover #literatura

📚34. Instigada pelos irmãos @joaoimaria. #umquartoparaela #helengarner #livro #book #booklovers #literatura #libro #instabook

And so we are returning to the capital city of #london with a MASSIVE party for our friends both on an offline. For the first time ever, we are broadcasting our #xmasparty2018 to #facebook. Top #jungle #legend @dj_aphrodite will be joined by London local hero #djblacklist, @starzoclock and @deezamc and myself #dvsmc doing a live PA.. its also going to be #helengarner's #birthdayparty, so it's going to have a @garner.helen vibe about it. It's all happening at #workbar, because @workbarlondon is the place to be. Tickets are limited to JUST 100 tickets!! The promotions are going to be #HEAVY and the #marketing game is already #tightlikeaducksbottom (at WORK BAR)