Hallucinating AI sounds remarkably like the very stable genius.

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.

US$3000 per stolen book doesn't sound like generous compensation from a company worth $183 billion... www.forbes.com.au/news/innovat...

Looking forward to joining this lineup in Sydney on August 17 to celebrate Antigone Kefala’s distinctive fiction and poetry. Once undersung and marginalised, her work is gaining new admirers with recent publications here and in the US.

Looking forward to joining this lineup in Sydney on August 17 to celebrate Antigone Kefala’s distinctive fiction and poetry. Once undersung and marginalised, her work is gaining new admirers with recent publications here and in the US.

NEW: 18,500 children have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. The Washington Post has just published every single known name. A seminal moment.

If you would like to add your voice in support, you can sign here: url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/w2nbCBNqgB...

'Dear friends, We are now deep in the heart of famine...' A fundraiser for writer, researcher and winner of the Al Khalili poetry award, Mohamed Alzaqzooq, colleague of a writer friend, to help evacuate his family with 3 small children, now starving in Gaza. gofund.me/ebc07c23

Applications are now open for the Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship. The $35,000 scholarship is offered annually to an Australian author to provide them with valuable time to work on a current manuscript. One runner-up will receive $15,000. www.asauthors.org.au/award/blake-beckett-trust-scholarship

Announcing 🥁 The Poetry in Translation Prize, a new biennial award for an outstanding poetry collection translated into English, run collaboratively by Giramondo, Fitzcarraldo Editions and New Directions. Submissions will open from 15 July to 15 August. Learn more: bit.ly/4ll3gmB

"...Palestinians are condemned to live in a constant present, denied access to their own past and to the possibility of thinking about an alternative future.” newlinesmag.com/essays/histo...

Literal cages. Not even metaphorical ones. Literal ones.

Please sign and share - a worthy petition to protect Sociology at Macquarie and, more generally, to protest the declining commitment by university managers to strong social sciences in Australia. Their value cannot be over-stated. www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/sa...

‘War enters the body like an illness and stays.’ mondoweiss.net/2025/05/the-...

Looking forward to crossing multiple time zones to join this starry program of writers, next week, in Berlin.

‘I asked the paramedics what was hardest about this work. Responding to an air strike and discovering that it’s your own family, one said. Recovering the bodies of children, another said. He paused…“It is strange that the world has allowed this to happen to us.”’ www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

"...although the Down Under presence in Berlin is noted by anyone who enjoys Nick Cave or avocado toast or Berlin Atonal (or deals ketamine in Neukölln), one seldom finds explicit discussions about what this long-distance relationship means" @ajbwells.bsky.social www.the-berliner.com/books/down-u...

STATEMENT: 'Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia' Read the statement online here: tinyurl.com/mud7va29 Co-sign the statement, fill in this form: forms.gle/oDYgnobrMiSc...

FULL LINEUP for our little festival of Australian and Aoteoroa/New Zealand literature in Berlin on May 24th!! Come see professors, poets, artists, & novelists (& me); come hear about Weiss & Bismarck's bastards & Sebald in the desert & multidirectional war memory >> stadtsprachen.de/en/event/par...

Excerpts from Charlotte Beradt’s The Third Reich of Dreams, republished in English this month after decades out of print. A work that could not be more prescient, in its exploration of how fascism invades every part of private life, even the sleeping mind. www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/03...

Out now ✨ Fiction and Poetry by Antigone Kefala. Two commemorative editions bringing together works by one of the most distinctive voices in Australian literature. Learn more: giramondopublishing.com

An interest-free loan program for LGBTQ+ people who need to move in search of safety. You do not need to be Jewish to qualify. www.keshetonline.org/movetothrive/

❗️Authors and illustrators: have your books been used to train AI? Today the Atlantic published a search tool allowing authors to search for their books in the LibGen dataset, which has been used to train Meta's AI system. Search here: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Meta used at least 16 of my books, and numerous articles, to help train the AI it will use to make billions. Authors, search your name here: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Three of the late David Wojnarowicz's tape journals — his thoughts, dreams, fears, and environment during two separate road trips he took (with photographer Marion Scemama) to the American southwest and west coast in the first half of 1989. www.ubu.com/sound/wojnar... [via @ubuweb.bsky.social]

📻A new episode of Between the Covers w/ @davidnaimon.bsky.social talking to one of Australia's most celebrated & daring writers, Michelle de Kretser. She describes her uncategorizable latest book, Theory & Practice, as 80% fiction, 15% essay & 5% memoir. Listen! bit.ly/BTCMichelled...

Applications for the July–Nov 2025 KYD Mentors Program are now open! We're so excited to announce this round of mentors: Candice Fox, Melanie Cheng, Kate Mildenhall, @evelynaraluen.bsky.social , Mark Smith, Sarah Krasnostein and @yassmin.bsky.social ! More details here: buff.ly/y6ejXLk

1/ “If a dream is a parallel reality, what can it reveal about the collective mind and political consciousness during war?” Mireille Juchau asks. Juchau combed through the dream journals of Ukrainians and was captivated by their raw testimonies: www.thedial.world/articles/nen...

1/ Do you feel that? It’s like a lingering cold, or a pressing headache. A presence that shouldn’t be there. A force is bringing us back. But where exactly is it taking us? The pieces in this month’s issue look at ghosts of various kinds: www.thedial.world

It’s like they’re really trying for the Leni Riefenstahl award

1/ In this translated essay, originally published in Il Post, Francesca Mastruzzo recounts how she started writing to Russian political prisoners—and the story of one inmate, Dmitry Kulikov. www.thedial.world/articles/new...

“South Carolina lawmakers have reintroduced legislation to make abortion punishable by the death penalty.” jessica.substack.com/p/theyre-kil...

Waiting for the great political tapestry of our time. Meanwhile, here’s Hannah Ryggen’s 6 October 1942 depicting Hitler and Churchill during the German occupation of Norway.

‘Narration is never about explanation…’ Adania Shibli in a brilliant conversation with Dionne Brand and David Naimon. open.spotify.com/episode/594m...

Those interested can read more in this wonderful 2019 New Yorker piece by Mireille Juchau (@mireillejuchau.bsky.social; #skystorians, #history): www.newyorker.com/books/second...

Terrific article exploring the experiences of writers working in the climate space by Alex Cothren, Amy Matthews and Rachel Hennessy in Text. Includes interviews with Jane Rawson, @lucytreloar.bsky.social, @mireillejuchau.bsky.social and more. textjournal.scholasticahq.com/article/9009...

Annual reread + tasseography.