AustLit

Australia is the fourth biggest country in the world for QAnon social media content and discussion, and its fans are a wide ranging group, from celebrity chef Pete Evans to federal MP's like George Christensen. Margaret Simons wonders what brings them all together, why ideas like the theories promoted by QAnon have appeal and how social media and the collapse of much traditional journalism has fuelled the breakdown of a coherent idea of 'the public' Plus:Omar Sakr, Mark McKenna, Declan Fry, Elizabeth Flux, Paul Daley, Rodney Hall, Yen-Rong Wong, Maria Tumarkin, Gregory Day, Shakira Hussein, Paul Barratt, Steve Dow and Australia In Three Books from Giselle Au-Nhien NguyenNew fiction from Briohny Doyle, Rose Michael, Melanie Cheng and Dawn NguyenNew poetry from Shey Marque, Steve Brock, Dzenana Vucic, Madeleine Dale, Diane Fahey, Toby Fitch, Christian Bok and more. Reviews from Timmah Ball, Andy Jackson, Darlene Silva Soberano, Max Easton, Claire Cao, and Dion…' (Publication abstract)

'In December's 80th birthday edition of Meanjin, writers address the edition's theme: The Next 80 Years.

'The issue opens with reflective contributions from all of Meanjin's living past editors. Tara June Winch and Behrouz Boochani offer a conversational meditation on time and the very notion of a future. Bruce Pascoe writes on the strange relationship non-Indigenous Australians have with trees, and wonders when we will realise that the forest is a friend. Jennifer Mills encounters ... herselves ... in a future archive. Peter Doherty sees a future world of worries-many of them viral-but settles on hope and the necessity of individual responsibility. Jess Hill wonders whether existing models of policing are fit for purpose in countering domestic abuse. Michael Mohammed Ahmad writes on whiteness and the idea of 'real Australians'. Jane Rawson looks at dramatic changes in Australian nature and wonders 'who belongs here?' And Raimond Gaita writes on the moral challenges that have been presented by Covid19 and the challenge to our future presented by Black Lives Matter and the quest for Indigenous sovereignty.' (Edition summary)

'In our September edition, there's a brace of fine writing in the time of Covid-19.

'From Jack Latimore, 'Through a Mask, Breathing': an expansive, lyrical essay that couples a local response to the Black Lives Matter movement to ideas around gentrification, St Kilda, Sidney Nolan and the life and music of Archie Roach, all of it set against the quiet menace of the pandemic.

'In other pieces drawn from our Covid moment, Kate Grenville charts the troubled progress and unexpected insights of days under lockdown, Fiona Wright finds space and rare pleasures as the world closes in, Krissy Kneen takes on the sudden obsession with 'iso-weight', Justin Clemens searches for hope in the world of verse, Desmond Manderson and Lorenzo Veracini consider viruses, colonialism and other metaphors, and there's short fiction from Anson Cameron, 'The Miserable Creep of Covid'. ' (Publication introduction)

'In this edition's cover essay, Gomeroi poet, essayist and scholar Alison Whittaker takes on the idea of white fragility and asks 'Has white people becoming more aware of their fragilities and biases really done anything for us—aside from finding a new way to say 'one of the good ones' or worse, asking us to?'. Whittaker aims squarely at a progressive white culture that sees an elevated racial conscience as a path to post-colonial innocence.

'In other essays, Timmah Ball asks that most fundamental of questions: Why Write? 'Were they looking for the next successful blak book.' while Anna Spargo-Ryan writes powerfully on the often-brutal history of abortion in women's lives and men's politics. Rick Morton shares his version of Australia in Three Books and Maxine Beneba Clarke considers risk and writers' acts of courage.' (Publication summary)

'In the December issue of Meanjin Paul Daley takes a long look at the complex legacy of James Cook. In a timely essay ahead of the Cook sestercentennial in 2020, Daley digs deep into the many and conflicting strands of this Australian colonial foundation story. Was Cook a blameless master navigator? Or should he be connected intimately to the dispossession of First Nations peoples that followed his voyage of 1770?' (Introduction)

'In the lead essay UNEARTHED: Last Days of The Anthropocene, James Bradley writes compellingly on the urgent crisis of climate change. 'There is a conversation I do not know how to have, a conversation about what happens if we are headed for disaster. It is not a theoretical question for me. I have two daughters.'

'Miles Franklin shortlisted author Michael Mohammed Ahmad writes on how his thinking about literature, politics and race was shaped in Reading Malcolm X in Arab-Australia. In an accidental companion piece, This Vast Conspiracy of Memory, Khalid Warsame reflects on life and writing while making a complete reading of the works of James Baldwin.

'Among this edition's other authors are Glyn Davis, Karen Wyld, Fatima Measham, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Maria Takolander and Meg Mundell.' (Edition introduction)

'We were just a little surprised when the Australia Council said yes. But then a year later—as you were—they said no.

'Three years back, when the council redrew the map of arts funding, Meanjin lost its rolling three-year key organisation grant, a pattern that had allowed if not luxury then a degree of certainty. Money was the root of it all: the council’s budget had been gutted and cuts had to be made. Whatever discomforting ripples were felt through opera, ballet and theatre companies had become a toxic trickle by the time the tide of change made its way down the funding food chain to bodies whose business was literature.' (Jonathan Green, Introduction)

'Meanjin did not publish a piece of fiction until 1943 - 'we still strive to talk poetry', founding editor Clem Christesen observed, perhaps tellingly, in the first Meanjin of December 1940.' (Jonathan Green Editorial introduction)

'What if its too late? What if the damage is done? Our climate is changing, a shift that will be transformative. But like the intersectionality of our personal and social relations, the environmental effects of the Anthropocene do not begin or end with rises in global temperature, they are complicated by interconnected patterns of human influence over the natural world.'  (Jonathan Green Editorial Introduction)

'Clementine Ford wonders whether the #MeToo movement represents a turning point for women, Anna Spargo-Ryan thinks not: 'In the wake of #MeToo, when women said "this time it will be different", it wasn't.' Joumanah El Matrah picks over the idea of religious freedom, Liz Conor recalls the section 18C case against cartoonist Bill Leak, and an earlier race controversy over the work of Eric Jolliffe. Clare Payne argues that women are entering a new age of economic empowerment. Timmah Ball brings an Indigenous perspective to the home ownership debate, Hugh Mackay offers calm reflections on the madness of Year 12, Carmel Bird ponders her many connections to Nobel Prize contender Gerald Murnane, and Harry Saddler listens to the world with the ears of a dog.

'There's new fiction from Randa Abdel-Fattah, Beejay Silcox, Laura Elvery and Vogel Prize winner Emily O'Grady. The edition's poets include: Fiona Wright, John Kinsella, Kevin Brophy, Kate Middleton and Hazel Smith.' (Publication summary)

'March Meanjin features the Nauru Diaries of former Royal Navy doctor Nick Martin. What he found in the Australian detention centre 'was way more traumatic than anything I'd seen in Afghanistan'. You'll also read Paul Daley on Indigenous history, statues and strange commemorations, Omar Sakr and Dennis Altman on the same sex marriage vote and Fiona Wright on Australia in three books. There's new fiction from Laura McPhee-Browne, Peter Polites, John Kinsella and Paul Dalla Rosa and a fine selection of new poetry from the likes of Stephen Edgar, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Marjorie Main and Judith Beveridge.' (Jonathan Green Introduction)

'We live in a moment giddy with change. Change is constant, change is fast. Change can be its own rationale, an unquestioned, irresistible propulsion to a quickly unfolding and possibly unimaginable future. Has it ever been thus? Well, yes and no. Change is both a part of what it is to be human—a desire in many cultures for progress and growth—and one of things that makes us—in many cultures—fearful and anxious.' (Editorial)

'In a phone call followed by several conversations and a string of other phone calls, John Clarke slowly explained to me the concept of the Commonplace Book. Not a diary. Not a journal. Jottings and observations; little notes on the subtle specialness of life. Several emails followed with various jotted musings attached.' (Editorial introduction)

'In the summer edition of Meanjin, Miles Franklin award winner Alexis Wright puts a challenging question: who should have the right to tell Aboriginal stories? Guy Rundle considers the Donald Trump victory and the changing state of US politics. Katharine Murphy reflects on the passing tides of parenthood, Tim Dunlop wonders what we’ll all do in a world that has moved beyond work, Arnold Zable looks at the resilient beauty that can come from the depths of evil inhumanity. There’s new memoir from Fiona Wright, fiction from John Kinsella and Beejay Silcox, and a fresh brace of new Australian poetry, including work by Anna Kerdijk Nicholson and Geoff Page. Plus, Commonplace: a new regular column from the legendary John Clarke.' (Publication introduction)