I'm proofing @meanjin.bsky.social 84.4 Summer 2025—only AI thinks it's got a better idea on how to engage with Australia's finest writers.

Big thanks to Tom Shakespeare, Scott Avery and Lorna Hallahan talking the social model with Anne Kavanagh just now. The model is only just gaining traction and while there are limitations, we need to keep building on it; the medical model still excludes too many. about.unimelb.edu.au/diversity-in...

Devastatingly excellent reporting by @roycerk2.bsky.social—

PSA: Be careful today, Melbourne. And if you’re headed into the city, fyi the Swanston St trams aren’t running through the CBD. Stay safe 🙏

It was only the other night that I heard the news of Fiona's death… I was so shaken that my whole world just stopped. What a powerhouse. May she rest knowing just how appreciated and admired she was x www.nida.edu.au/news/vale-fi...

Racism. Turns out you *can* both-sides it! Who knew. Spoiler: “mixed reaction” means that one and only one person has expressed a view about assimilation. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

“Let’s hope that the present regime doesn’t say, OK, we’re only going to make movies about this… we’re going to clamp down on streaming… Authoritarianism is a very frightening concept when it comes to the arts. But… the curiosity is still there… You can’t kill that. Artists will always find a way.”

It’s been a little while, RRRadiowaves! Tonight we unspin the week’s politics with these legends. Let’s talk AI and the dangers of normalising industrial-scale theft from writers, journalists and artists—and how that’s transforming democracy as we know it:

Tonight on Spin Cycle on @3rrrfm.bsky.social we welcome @rachelwithers.bsky.social back from her never ending holiday and @anatolitis.bsky.social is back to chat all things AI and copyright, with Nicholas Pickard. Plus @theshufflediary.bsky.social in the studio. Listen in 7pm or on demand later.

The Art of Agony: Percy Grainger's speech as music. Robert Davidson's astonishing 2012 work— youtu.be/kqeYoCfEFJY

A book I’m editing references this and fyi @geofflemon.bsky.social I am now deceased youtu.be/T0kLDpK_YNo?...

Onya @richarddenniss.bsky.social. Let’s reverse the normalisation of brazen daylight robbery: artists’ work is not content fodder. Art and knowledge are our most valuable treasures. They’re our culture. They’re our future. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politic... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

Congratulations to @meanjin.bsky.social’s Cultural & Literary Advisory member, the excellent @danbourchier.bsky.social, about to return to NITV as their General Manager! www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article...

Universities must remain spaces for rigorous ideas and demonstrable truths, just as writers’ festivals must remain spaces for expert, honest conversations, no matter how difficult. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Aeons ago I was working on a plucky film mag start-up and David took the time to write to us—a letter! An actual letter!—about how much he enjoyed it. Total career highlight, that letter. Loved this man. So grateful for all the ways he made cinema real and powerful and special and moving.

If your business model doesn't function without stealing other people's work, then you don't have a business model: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

After lots of hard work by @stilgherrian.com, there are some truly magnificent improvements in the @meanjin.bsky.social search function! Search for anything from 1940 to today! Enjoy! meanjin.com.au

Good @byronwritersfest.bsky.social news: tomorrow morning’s conversation with Tom Keneally is going ahead! Find us in the A&I Hall instead. Our theme is ‘a life in literature’ and we’ve already committed to powering up the politics of it all: www.byronwritersfestival.com/festival/pro...

Enormous respect to the entire @byronwritersfest.bsky.social family. You’ve made us all feel so welcome, challenged and connected. Australia urgently needs a festival insurance scheme that guarantees against loss for extreme weather events because climate crisis. Let’s strengthen the arts. Fast.

Too easy! My @smh @theage cartoon.

See you at Byron Writers Festival where I’ll be talking cultural and political nation-building in four big sessions! Such an honour to speak alongside greatly admired writers including Thomas Mayo, Barry Jones, Tom Keneally and more. Tix will sell fast: www.byronwritersfestival.com/festival/wri...

Tech giants make big profits by stealing the copyrighted work of Australian writers, and now they want to make massive profits by making it legal to steal everyone’s? How is wholesale theft and devastation being rebranded as a productivity boost? Read on: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

And in other good news, Slick has made the long list at The Nibs:

Rethinking migraine as “a leading cause of disability… Migraine is far more than a bad headache, it's a neurological disease and we are considering it at the moment… as a disorder of sensory processing.” www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

“The blood called out to us. So we're telling this story, we're writing these songs. We're singing our songs again. I'm releasing myself.” Great work by Lorena Allam, Sarah Collard and Ella Achibald-Binge with Tamati Smith, Nick Evershed, Andy Ball, Victoria Hart: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

This curiously imbalanced, previously unknown and highly improbable creature has totally made my day: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Proud to be one of many Australian arts graduates calling for a university policy and fee structure that champions the people who create Australia’s future www.theguardian.com/australia-ne... with thanks to @michellearrow.bsky.social and the AHA for taking the lead. Join us: advocate for change—

Onya Sydney www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Melbourne! The sky!

Think you know the story behind the 1998 waterfront dispute: Patrick Stevedores v the Maritime Union of Australia? Think again—then immerse in @janfran.bsky.social’s superb six-part series Conspiracy. Hear workers plus John Howard, Chris Corrigan, Greg Combet and more: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

“Much of the recent commentary presumes the size of the election victory to be synonymous with the size of the mandate, divorcing the mandate from its policy dimension and reducing it to a matter of political calculus…” Incisive @palaceletters.bsky.social: www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topi...

This total powerhouse. Everyone who knew her loved her, and everyone who loved her was all the better for knowing her. Rest in sheer joy, dearest Jess ❤️💔

“Mr Rolfe was racist, and he worked in and benefited from an organisation with the hallmarks of institutional racism”, she said. Not just “one bad apple”, she said. “Kumanjayi’s death in Yuendumu on 9 November 2019 was avoidable.” —NT Coroner, Elisabeth Armitage: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

“People may be surprised to learn that complaints about… artworks are rare and usually driven by those who have not seen the work.” www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

In today’s Sartorial PSA we turn our attention to the hip pocket. The hip pocket is designed to fit your hand—or your partner’s—for strolling with extra hipness. The hip pocket is not for water bottles, glasses cases, nor—as in my most recent encounter—umbrellas. Your attention is appreciated 💅

“I want to advocate a new concept. We should build and defend brave spaces… Our national broadcaster should be a brave space. So, too, our arts organisations, universities and writers’ festivals…” That’s exactly what’s needed. Braveness defended and championed: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Valuable piece by Grace McQuiltern—

getting called Australia's Pynchon in ABR is beyond a dream come true. 'Pynchon'? more like pinch me, I'm dreamin'!

The right outcome. Australia's arts community has spoken—and Creative Australia have reinstated Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. Huge respect to Khaled and Michael for your dignity throughout this ordeal. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

Now the policy and funding spotlight is finally back on literature, Writing Australia and our national poet laureate must not just speak for our writers – they must roar. My latest for @australia.theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Thanks, @anatolitis.bsky.social, for important context and a call to roar for literatature. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Big congrats new Writing Australia board members Sarah Holland-Batt and @meanjin.bsky.social Advisory member Christos Tsiolkas! With the policy and funding spotlight back on literature, Writing Australia must not just speak for our writers—they must roar. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

I've worked in a newsroom that already tries to employ an AI style checker. It didn't work, introduced errors and the old, un-AI automated style checker (think "spell check") worked much, much better. And the less said about "AI generated summaries" the better.

I touch on the use of AI in real estate ads in my latest for Griffith Review. It’s what I call a ‘content mindset’ where AI is used to generate filler—the gumph between the ads—rather than actual humans providing actual expertise and facts. And it’s getting worse. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Just saw an exasperated wog mama thump her son for saying something stupidly offensive—made all the more entertaining because the bloke must’ve been at least 50. Μπράβο ρε θεία! 👏

Well over a decade ago as a major festival leader, I tried but failed to form a consortium that strengthened industry relationships and ended precarity for itinerant staff by providing secure year-round employment. Competitive, zero-sum thinking trumped collegiality. Today’s situation is far worse.

“barely a human to be seen in these spare and sunlit interiors, let alone any of the messy detritus of actual domestic life… often holiday houses, frequently the architect’s own… a particularly thrusty approach to form…” www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/book... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

Men desperately clinging to ‘merit’ is the best argument for why quotas are needed: it exposes a failure to understand that unwritten quotas prioritising men have long been in place. There’s no merit in men who consistently fail—unless men are the only metric. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Onya the Danes! "The Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice." www.theguardian.com/technology/2...