I love this essay by Sally Breen. She grew up in fearing Queensland cops – then she got curious. The stories she uncovered in her interviews with 17 Gold Coast homicide detectives sit under her skin, 'like lava'. @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/friday-essay...

Publishing expert @alicektg.bsky.social takes the pulse of Australia's literary festivals & their challenges – cancellations, culture wars, climate change and new hate speech laws – as Adelaide announces Constellations: Not Writers Week. @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/what-is-the-...

With threats from culture wars, climate disaster and insecure funding, Australia's thriving writers' festivals face an uncertain future. Read more in @theconversation.com theconversation.com/what-is-the-...

This was a fun story to work on: Rocket or arugula? How a salad vegetable mapped the Italian diaspora theconversation.com/rocket-or-ar...

Polished the manuscript of my debut novel, Every Breath, at a Writers Victoria workshop. Met my first publisher (and editor) at a Writers Victoria panel discussion. I wouldn't have what is now a decade+ author career without my state writers org, now defunded. theconversation.com/writers-vict...

Writers Victoria has been defunded – but writers’ centres are ‘fundamental’ to literary culture. So many writers have found work and been discovered through their programs – and they support the next generation of your favourite writers. @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/writers-vict...

Amy Thunig-McGregor expresses what we need to hold onto, for succour and sanity: the goodness in real connections & feelings, our (chosen) families, our friends and communities, in the face of chaos, misinformation & feeling powerless. thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...

I wrote this some time ago - with all of us knowing this day would come, and Rob, of course, fighting like the bloody-minded bastard he was to the very end. He irrevocably changed my life - and how our country saw itself. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

“Devastated literary figures have been working hard behind the scenes” This community 📚❤️✊🏼 www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...

We asked 5 creative writing experts if they would use AI to break writer's block. Their answers surprised us. theconversation.com/would-you-us...

I really love this piece.

This is not in fact the definition of the “working class.”

Basically, every generation of Americans has its own prophets of prosperity and popularity. But the message is always (essentially) the same. And its aim is always to justify massive inequality and pacify the masses by promising that someday they'll be on the winning side, too.

Ah yes, famously events with interstate attendees, book sales, coffee carts, wine bars, hundreds of employed artists, dozens of staffers, thousands of daily visitors to the city and, yes, ticketed events, generate "zero revenue". www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...

Knut Hamsun gave his Nobel medal to Joseph Goebbels in 1943, if anyone is looking for a precedent. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

The Greens are again urging the Malinauskas Government to investigate these claims of political interference. The allegations that public servants have been told to stall investigations into the toxic algal bloom in order to protect the political interests of Labor are shocking.

Seems like there are a few issues in Malinauskas’ government www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

All education in Australia should be 💯 free and 💯 secular … if parents opt for a private or religious education for their children they should have to fund 💯 of the cost.

Data today shows rents again at record highs in nearly every capital city in Aus - Sydney at $800 a week! Rental vacancy rates are at record lows & Labor’s policies are incentivising wealthy property investors, which push property prices up & result in skyrocketing rents.

Some media have reported that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah has dropped her defamation claim against SA premier Peter Malinauskas. That is incorrect. She has resolved her separate defamation claim against Adelaide Festival Corporation.

In this shitty year, sharing a nice thing I wrote for InReview, about artist-writer Barbara Hanrahan's marvellous, long out-of-print diaries: a legend passed around at bookshops and by literary people. “I had just imagined all sorts of people reading me." www.indailysa.com.au/inreview/boo...

I’m glad the new board has admitted this was wrong. What an utter waste of everybody’s time, energy and labour www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

NEW: The Bureau of Prisons won't explain why Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred to a cushy facility after she met with Deputy AG Todd Blanche. So we filed a FOIA request for documents on this—and now we're suing (thanks to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press—@rcfp.org).

Spoke with ABC Arts for this great article on freedom of expression and writers festivals www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01... @asauthors.bsky.social

Have been thinking about this Broadcast News wisdom a lot lately …

Quiet, piggy

I spoke with @theconversation.com for this important piece on the Adelaide Festival disaster and the crisis in arts governance theconversation.com/masterclass-... @asauthors.bsky.social

Excellent essay by Hossein Asgari on one the great novels of the 20th century theconversation.com/guide-to-the...

Defamation litigation update

Excellent behind-the-scenes info here from former AWW director Jo Dyer. 'Peter Malinauskas is a man of sport, not letters ... He has failed to grasp the central role festivals play in the life and identity of his Festival State – it’s in the name, Mali!' theshot.net.au/uncategorize...

A failure of principle led to a failure of courage that led to a failure of governance and has now brought us to a failure of accountability. Writers - and readers - deserve so much better than this. Malinauskas should answer for the destruction of Writers Week.

Very strong new look board for Adelaide Festival. Could still have an artist, a young person and more diversity – but good shepherds for now. www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...

How they killed Writers Week:

What was the board’s role in the end of Adelaide Writers Week? (And how SHOULD an arts board work, and how might we make them better? Also: why can the board override the director?) Thanks @kimgoodwinacm.bsky.social for writing this for @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/masterclass-...

Terrific opinion piece by Adelaide literary journalist Walter Marsh. www.indailysa.com.au/news/opinion...

Wildest lit interview of 2025. A genteel Caroline Baum disassembles Alice Munro's breezy biographer to find why he kept hidden the secret of how Munro chose to live with & support her husband after his conviction for sexually abusing her daughter. Great journalism. podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/l...

If we silence voices we don’t agree with, we’re doing the work of extremists for them Peter Greste www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Amidst all the powerful author, literary and bookshop solidarity the last few days, I am extra buoyed by learning that a friend’s book club - made up of retired country teachers and farmers - is also writing furious letters to the Adelaide Festival board

Adelaide's InDaily is doing an extraordinary job of reporting on the Adelaide Writers Week debacle. I don't know @helen-karakulak.bsky.social, but I know she's knocking it out of the park. (So proud to be an occasional contributor!) www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...

Former leaders of the Adelaide Festival have written to the board. They call it a grave mistake which brings the Festival and Writers Week into disrepute and which may have far-reaching consequences for both the Festival and Writers Week well into the future."

"We had to readjust the branding to fit the new schedule following the boycott."

Writers withdrawing from Adelaide now also includes Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, according to Artshub. Also internationals Percival Everett and Vincenzo Latronico. www.artshub.com.au/news/news/ad...

Great piece put together by my Conversation colleagues on Adelaide Writers Week. Denis Muller: ‘This decision goes far beyond the established standards embodied in the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it an offence to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” people because of their race.’

I get that people love to hang shit on arts administrators but we need to be clear that this is a governance issue. The AWW staff were the ones who put the program together - and the board overrode them. Will other writers fest boards take a similarly interventionist role re programming this year?

It’s going to be an interesting few weeks when the royal commission examines, as I suspect it will, the defraying of social cohesion caused by the organised censorship of writers, artists and employees across the country for daring to speak against an unfolding genocide

Malinauskas: “By law, I, as Premier, am prevented from directing the board ... however, when asked for my opinion, I was happy to make it clear that the State Government did not support the inclusion of Dr Abdel-Fattah on the Adelaide Writers’ Week program” www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-a...

What’s the point of writers’ festivals — or, for that matter, writers — if they can’t discuss issues that matter? Australian arts administrators would rather destroy the whole sector than allow Palestinians to speak about genocide. It’s beyond shameful.

Following the decision from the Board of the Adelaide Festival, The Australia Institute is withdrawing its support from this year’s literary festival. Here is our statement, and a personal one from me.

Those who have been agitating for the Royal Commission want to make it a RC into why any criticism of Israel is evil. Australians overwhelmingly do not agree with this, and Albanese should side with the public.