Prithvi Varatharajan

Compromised Speech

With the aid of algorithms, the medium has become the message with a vengeance. In this essay, Prithvi Varatharajan recalls the ways we used to connect online before social media to prefigure a less frenetic future for digital communication.

Literary Migrations

Syntactical Torque

Change Machine is an ambitious collection which has two standout accomplishments. One is its formal eclecticism and dexterity; the other is its contribution to Australian poetics in drawing on local vernacular and literary influence, and subjectin...

Archives of Loss

Reading the losses arrayed in this anthology to write this review – even as they were tempered by expressions of joy or hope at ecological resilience, or calls for action – I felt somewhat overwhelmed. In that state, I recalled the classic Freudia...

Wrong is Wrong

There are a lot of memorable episodes and images in Displaced. But memorability isn’t enough, in my mind, for a memoir to stand out. Something that can elevate a memoir beyond an account of lived experience (however skilfully told), and help it fl...

The Ash of Song after the Flame

Fish Song is essayistic in its purpose, returning to questions about human existence in the world, adding and taking away from its answers, shaping and reshaping a response.

In Situ Poetics