The Shadow and the AcolyteBraiding the story of a literary friendship that soured with an account of changes at Australian universities since the 1970s, Joseph Steinberg shows the role that tertiary education has played in shaping writers’ work and sense of vocation.Joseph Steinberg30 May. 2025
Woman AloneDrawing on her experiences bushwalking through Western Sydney and her reading of Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall, Jumaana Abdu reflects on ‘abject freedom’, a concept that points to the paradoxical and precarious nature of women’s freedom in solitude....Jumaana Abdu27 May. 2025
Shadow TextsJoan Fleming reviews two books that embrace the discomfort occasioned by reckonings with colonial monuments. While challenges to commemorative art are often characterised as destructive, Fleming highlights the creative aspect of these reframings.Joan Fleming21 May. 2025
Glitching the BinaryIs there no escaping the oppressive apparatus of the capitalist heteropatriarchy? Reviewing Anna Poletti’s hello, world?, Jenny Hedley traces the characters’ hopeful forays into BDSM – their attempt to deprogram themselves and glitch the machine.Jenny Hedley16 May. 2025
I, Was, Am?What remains of the self when familiar markers of identity – names, physical traits, personal histories – are lost? Nina Culley considers what answers Anne de Marcken’s latest novel has to offer via its zombie narrator’s perspective.Nina Culley16 July. 2025
The Outer Spaces of FictionReviewing Pip Adam’s Audition and Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Astronauts, Lauren Collee ponders the challenges of setting stories in outer space. How far can the human imagination stray from Earth’s orbit? Is it ever far enough?Lauren Collee14 July. 2025
Good PostureWhat distinguishes acting out of care from acting like you care? Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen examines what Pitaya Chin’s The Director and the Daemon has to say about art masquerading as activism and activism masquerading as action.Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen6 June. 2025
Shadow TextsJoan Fleming reviews two books that embrace the discomfort occasioned by reckonings with colonial monuments. While challenges to commemorative art are often characterised as destructive, Fleming highlights the creative aspect of these reframings.Joan Fleming21 May. 2025
The Shadow and the AcolyteBraiding the story of a literary friendship that soured with an account of changes at Australian universities since the 1970s, Joseph Steinberg shows the role that tertiary education has played in shaping writers’ work and sense of vocation.Joseph Steinberg30 May. 2025
Woman AloneDrawing on her experiences bushwalking through Western Sydney and her reading of Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall, Jumaana Abdu reflects on ‘abject freedom’, a concept that points to the paradoxical and precarious nature of women’s freedom in solitude....Jumaana Abdu27 May. 2025
Now What?To mark the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the arrival of Indochinese refugees in Australia, Kim Huynh and Vivian Pham exchange emails about the bonds of gratitude, the persistence of joy, and a new Vietnamese Australian aesthetic.Kim Huynh, Vivian Pham22 Apr. 2025
Baltic Blues. And Other Colours.The war in Ukraine has highlighted the geopolitical significance of the Baltic Sea. Drawing on Jan Brokken’s account of Baltic peoples in Baltic Souls, Evelyn Juers unfurls the cultural and intellectual heritage of the region across the centuries....Evelyn Juers1 Apr. 2025
Living it Line by LineHossein Asgari and Kim Cheng Boey talk about the novels they have each written about a real-life poet: respectively, the mid-twentieth-century Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad and the Tang-dynasty Chinese poet Du Fu.Hossein Asgari, Kim Cheng Boey13 June. 2025
The Poet EatersIn 2015, Ben Etherington published ‘The Poet Tasters’, a forensic critique of Australian poetry reviewing. Poet and poetry podcaster Alice Allan talks to James Jiang about the enduring impact of Etherington’s essay ten years (and 300 episodes) on....Alice Allan, James Jiang10 June. 2025
The Vietnamese TurnThe SRB talks to Nathalie Nguyen about the changing historiography of the Vietnam War, with greater recognition of Vietnamese-language sources and the role of South Vietnam, and the personal stakes of this history for the Vietnamese diaspora. Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen29 Apr. 2025
Settling ScoresIn the wake of the women’s World Cup, Ruth McHugh-Dillon speaks to Ellen van Neerven about playing sport on Indigenous land and the challenges – of classification and acknowledgement – laid down by their latest book, Personal Score.Ruth McHugh-Dillon, Ellen van Neerven28 Aug. 2023
