A disgraceful end. Melbourne University is a captured organization with no backbone

Thrilled to announce that my latest acquisition as Publiser at Large for @bundyipublishing.bsky.social is BELLA’S JOURNEY by Rowena Lawrie. BELLA’S JOURNEY is a reimagining of the classic tale of Swan Lake. Due for release in late 2026. www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202... #mobsky

Sydney based ppl or ppl in town over the weekend come to this Critical Forum that compliments & dare I say commemorates Brook Andrew's Death of a Memorial exhibition. The event will be a living counter monument with weaving, deep discussions and poetry events.humanitix.com/death-of-a-m...

I see Aunty Lidia has upset the settlers again.

The silencing continues... The National Press Club of Australia, caving to the Israel lobby, Cancels My Talk on Our Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists open.substack.com/pub/chrished...

Either universities are private businesses that get to set their own priorities or they’re public goods that are obligated to serve everyone. You can’t have it both ways.

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

"It took more than an hour after the story broke, and was covered by several mastheads, to receive official notice from MUP; a group email confirming Meanjin’s immediate closure." ~Emma Sutherland, Archives Editor at Meanjin in @artshub.bsky.social this weekend. www.artshub.com.au/news/opinion...

No, it doesn’t add up! #UniMelb should and can do better! #Meanjin #MUP #Australia #Publishing #CultureMatters #AcademicSky #ResearchSky

What is the value of Meanjin? We’ve done some calculations – and it’s not about money theconversation.com/what-is-the-...

No comment and all class @anatolitis.bsky.social

Meanjin closing & AI stealing the work of authors. Times are tough for Australian writers. Please sign chng.it/p4KFP8BB9Y #australianwriters

Meanjin should be saved somehow. Hope that still happens

It just does not add up. We're aware of at four offers being put to MUP to clear their financial woes @andyhazel.bsky.social @nickfeik.bsky.social

the lineage of Karens none of this is new Exhibit A psmag.com/social-justi...

my incredibly niche poem

RALLY TO SAVE MEANJIN Thursday 11 Sep 9am Outside the Melbourne University Publishing office, 715 Swanston St, Carlton. A number of Australian writers and editors will speak in support of this vital cultural institution

I wrote for Crikey about the decision to shut Meanjin down - and to sever a connection to a hopeful progressive vision of Australian culture

So many unanswered questions posed in this excellent piece on the Meanjin closure. eg. -Why the sudden irreversible decision? -Why didn't they try to save it (community, donor drives etc)? -Why the secrecy? -Why use the financial viability argument now? As if the v wealthy UniMelb can't afford it.

Why should accountants, human-resource managers & real-estate developers be interested in promoting Australian literature?

Twitter is owned by a neo-Nazi, the LA Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal are owned by pro-Trump billionaires, and CBS News will soon be run by a far-right Likud extremist. American media still has a liberal bias problem.

Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia’s cultural landscape and the nation’s second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.

in which the chair of MUP denies that UMelb Council, chaired by Mark Leibler, had any formal role in the MUP decision to close down Meanjin. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

My latest newsletter is about how the double standards that allows big tech to commit the most appalling crimes -- and to get away with them. whatwelost.substack.com/p/big-tech-a...

Open letter in support of Meanjin: openletter.earth/an-open-lett...

It’s ludicrous and insulting to suggest that the richest university in Australia can’t afford the two part-time wages to run Meanjin. Also: did they even try to save it? Donation drive? Philanthropic efforts? Offering it to another institution? No. The university council shut it down intentionally.

MUP isn’t fit for purpose -and this decision is a blight on Melbourne University’s reputation, degrading our cultural and literary institutions like this. How dare they.

This seems a simple and sensible approach to saving Meanjin: An Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor of The University of Melbourne on the Closure of Meanjin

When will people on the left wake up and realize they fell for a right wing moral panic about social media and cell phones that’s currently being used to strip us all of civil liberties? Jonathan Haidt, one of the primary architects of this moral panic, just brought his misinfo blog to Bari Weiss

Yesterday Jacinta Price, in very underreported comments, accused the Greens of supporting genocide against Israelis. But this morning every news outlet just carries her absurd, inflammatory lines about immigration? The whole media ecosystem is just a flywheel for this stuff, amplifying garbage.

Liberals are starting to say shit like, "trans people asked for too much too fast," and I'll remind your souless asses that we actually didn't ask for anything. we were minding our own business and quietly improving our healthcare and you (cis) decided to do a pogrom against us for no reason.

I was Meanjin's Designer in the early 00s for years. Laid out and typeset every page and cover. Tiny budget but a great opportunity for young me and for those who came before and after. Even then Melbourne Uni was an existential threat. They'll save very little and lose a great deal through this.

malcolm gladwell has been a dipshit for 10,000 hours

Make no mistake. The $100,000pa that the University of Melbourne will save by trashing an intellectual asset like Meanjin will not be spent in the pursuit of cultural and public value. It won’t even cover the VC’s annual lunch expenditure.

Copyright Agency is saddened by the announcement that Meanjin will cease publishing this December. Through our Cultural Fund, we have proudly supported Meanjin over many years. The closure of such an essential journal represents a great loss to the Australian literary sector.

Words have no meaning at The Guardian anymore. Linehan is a “gender activist” in the same way that the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan is a “race activist”

Meanjin is another causality to the anti-critical thought crusade. This is linked to the push to only have degrees that lead to "real jobs", the push to ease copyright laws to assist AI companies & the campaign to silence "dissenting" voices who say free Palestine. Goal: no empathy just obedience

Meanjin literary journal did not deserve this heartless bureaucratic demise. Thank you to everyone who worked on and wrote for do-called-Australia's second oldest literary journal. RIP Meanjin (1940-2025). You will be missed by many writers and readers.

You know the actual reasons they shut down Meanjin will come out. They always do.

there are about 3 places in Oz you can write interesting, alternative, explorative work, that leans left. With Meanjin gone, there's about 2. This country is a cultural backwater that grows more stale and stagnant by the day.

That feeling of achievement as an early career writer getting my work published in Meanjin. It meant so much to me. I'm sad that it's being denied to future writers.

What’s the real reason it’s being shut down? It sure ain’t a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Did the university council not like what it had been publishing, per chance? This was one of the handful of publications in Aus that published Randa Abdel-Fattah or Max Kaiser.

Can we band together and buy Meanjin please? Twenty people would be all it takes

I'm shattered at the loss of Meanjin. I've been a regular writer for years - one of few places you can publish serious long form writing that isn't tied directly to celebrity or the news cycle. This, along with the death of indie presses - what on earth is the point in trying to be a writer here?