Very unexpected and welcome news! QUT will become the new custodian of Meanjin, Australia's most eminent literary journal, bringing the publication back to Brisbane. www.qut.edu.au/about/meanjin

Thomas Bernhard, hangjng with the roofers after buying his second house (in 1971)

In which George Saunders gets a pummelling . . . theconversation.com/a-knock-off-...

How bizarre: Epstein offered to fund a proposed book by Brian Boyd on Lolita newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/01/a...

I'm hearing the problem is "supply" www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Julian Murphet on Infinite Jest theconversation.com/friday-essay...

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...

Very sad news about Rob Hirst. I have a great appreciation for drummers and he was one of the best ever.

The difference is that Goebbels was not so pathetic as to demand it

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 correct answer:

Pulp have shared a statement on Adelaide Festival. They told organisers they would be withdrawing, were asked to delay their announcement, and are now satisfied that they will participate in this year's Festival.

So basically exactly what Cathy Wilcox suggested in her cartoon.

Imagine you were about to appear at a writers' festival to talk about your first book... then the whole thing fell apart. I wanted to find debut authors who almost talked at Adelaide Writers' Week. These are 21 folks I've identified so far but *please* let me know who I've missed or mixed up.

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...

Who could have known?

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-...

Adelaide Festival is done - and the rest of the board has stepped down

The catalyst for the implosion of Adelaide Writers' Week may have been the board’s exclusion of Randa Abdel-Fattah on January 8, but the fight over her inclusion in the program had been running at board level for months, reports Nick Feik.

I write about the Adelaide Writers' Week debacle for @theshot.net.au. theshot.net.au/uncategorize...

Louise Adler's response www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"Readers familiar with the play may find it amusing that Agnes’s interest in the character bearing her dead son’s name evaporates before the end of Act I." theconversation.com/it-takes-man...

No notes All the power and love to @cathywilcox.bsky.social

Another option might have been to let her turn up and talk about her novel.

Interesting review of Omar Musa's Fierceland and the problem of writing literature in a time of polycrisis. theconversation.com/the-epic-nov...

I wrote for @crikey.com.au on the Wilcox stuff www.crikey.com.au/2026/01/12/t...

Grass roots. My @smh cartoon.

The ABC reports Tracey Whiting, the chair of the Adelaide Festival board has stepped down. This leaves just three members and a government observer left on the board. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

📢 SBS News can confirm three board members have now resigned from the Adelaide Festival, amid growing controversy over a decision to drop a Palestinian Australian author and academic.

Several plethoras

Richard Flanagan on point: "But with this act of utter folly and appalling weakness, the Adelaide Festival board – and the politicians who direct it – have, by scapegoating a Palestinian writer, now destroyed Adelaide Writers Week for the foreseeable future..." www.smh.com.au/national/if-...

the human mind will not be able to comprehend whatever insane editorial Caroline Overington has cooked up for the weekend australian

Credit where it's due

Look at those international names. Another cultural institution commits suicide.

Denis Muller on the Adelaide shitshow theconversation.com/as-authors-a...

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?

First withdrawal from the Adelaide Festival proper, DJ Haram www.indailysa.com.au/citymag/cult...

“Cultural sensitivity” means destroying an entire arts festival rather than allowing a Palestinian person to come along and talk about her new novel.

Looks like Zadie Smith and Masha Gessen may have withdrawn (no statement from either, though) www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...

This is fascinatingly slimly statement www.adelaidefestival.com.au/news/2025/ad...

More withdrawals from Adelaide Writers Week reportedly include: Bri Lee Maxine Beneba Clarke Clare Wright Paul Daley Hannah Kent Robbie Arnott Walter Marsh Jennifer Mills Hannah Ferguson + at least 5 others to add to yesterday’s lot

Extraordinary how much of Australia’s literary and cultural leadership more broadly are completely out of step with the writers and artists without whom they would not exist at all

Céline's first two novels, Journey to the End of the Night and Death on Credit

Obviously. Also the second-greatest debut album ever (after The Velvet Underground and Nico). Absolutely fucking incredible. "Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice In Chains."

Oh yes indeed...

Shameless self-promoting bloob.

In my last newsletter of the year, I let off steam about Trent Dalton, The Mushroom Tapes, Australian publishing and the books I hope - likely in vain - will not be commissioned in the aftermath of the Bondi tragedy. infra-dig.ghost.io/books-in-cri...

Proposal to allow use of Australian copyrighted material to train AI abandoned after backlash