'Immense relief': Sydney University tutor claws back $142,000 in stolen wages Total stolen wages across Australia's university sector could be as high as $300 million, the NTEU estimates.

Total stolen wages across Australia's university sector could be as high as $300 million, the NTEU estimates. www.crikey.com.au/2026/04/14/s...

I don't think they bother rinsing.

Trump's 'AI Jesus' post sparks backlash as pope responds to attack Donald Trump is criticised by religious sections of his supporter base after publishing, then deleting, the image, but the US president says: "I thought it was me as a doctor."

If the Pope declared a fatwa on Trump it would be hilarious.

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04...

‘We support entrepreneurial scholars and practitioners’ - what a ride (and how tf to read this parable of contemporary literature?)

Snap

A collection of roughly drawn orange lines all converging at a central point like an asterisk of text that says 'Claude'

Text from Kurt Vonnegut's 'Breakfast of Champions': This book is my fiftieth-birthday present to myself. I feel as though I am crossing the spine of a roof-having ascended one slope. I am programmed at fifty to perform childishly—to insult "The Star-Spangled Banner," to scrawl pictures of a Nazi flag and an asshole and a lot of other things with a felt-tipped pen. To give an idea of the maturity of my illustrations for this book, here is my picture of an asshole: [roughly drawn black lines converging at a central point like an asterisk] I think I am trying to clear my head of all the junk in there-the assholes, the flags, the underpants. Yes—there is a picture in this book of underpants. I'm throwing out characters from my other books, too. I'm not going to put on any more puppet shows. I think I am trying to make my head as empty as it was when I was born onto this damaged planet fifty years ago.

I wish I could have sat in on the meeting where Anthropic decided the Claude logo should be Kurt Vonnegut's drawing of an asshole

Catriona Menzies-Pike reviews ‘The Ruin of Magic: Longing and belonging in strange times’ by Kate Holden Kate Holden made a striking début with her 2005 memoir of addiction and sex work. In My Skin was both a critical and commercial success; in it, readers encountered a frank, opulent stylist possessed of a remarkably compassionate point of view. In My Skin pre-empted the boom in life writing by women that has been a fixture of Australian literature this century. If the tropes of recovery lit are more familiar now than they were in 2005, the brisk confidence of Holden’s voice and the curiosity of her gaze remain impressive. Holden refined and hybridised her approach in her next book, The Romantic (2010), a memoir that incorporated travel writing and literary criticism. These early works won Holden a devoted readership and she continued to publish new material as a columnist and cultural journalist over the next decade.

I wrote for ABR about, The Ruin of Magic, a new essay collection by Kate Holden. I’ve long admired Holden’s work but this collection, which deals with pressing questions of home, belonging, migration and exile, struck me as seriously undercooked.
www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...

This is a weird one. Helen DeWitt wins a major prize, then loses it because she can't do the smile-and-wave stuff they want from her

paperpools.blogspot.com/2026/04/we-l...

5 years of Socrates on the Beach... McElroy, Gass, Tudor-Sideri, Musil, Grill, Ariel Porte, Moore, Ulven, Blackwell, Craig, Theroux, Sims, Valéry, Stefanescu, Wood, Cărtărescu, Lutz, Hall, Haskell, Nutt, Ryder, Cárdenas, Khi Nao, Olsen, Handke, DeForest... socratesonthebeach.com

Dominic Kelly reviews ‘Where It All Went Wrong: The case against John Howard’ by Amy Remeikis The thesis of this new book by political reporter Amy Remeikis is a simple one. ‘You can trace almost every major societal issue Australia is facing today to Howard and his vision,’ she asserts. ‘He w...

I reviewed Amy Remeikis's Where It All Went Wrong for @austbookreview.bsky.social. Fair to say I wasn't impressed. www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...

A New York Times critic used AI to write his review – but criticism is deeply human Alex Preston has admitted to using AI to write a New York Times Book Review. He has not only embarrassed himself, but broken the trust of his readers.

Ai, ai, ai ...

Bec Kavanagh pummels a guy who totally deserves it

theconversation.com/a-new-york-t...

SA Liberals hope preferencing One Nation will give them a fighting chance – but is the brand damage worth it? John Howard’s principled stand against Pauline Hanson appears a distant memory for present-day Liberals, who have prioritised political expediency ahead of the South Australian election

Instinctively read this as "brain damage"

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

In memory of Grant Vernon Hart, American musician, drummer and co-songwriter for the alternative rock and hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü, singer and guitarist of Nova Mob, born on this day in 1961, St. Paul, Minnesota

📸 David Brewster

#punk #punkrock #granthart #history #punkrockhistory #otd

Utah woman who wrote book on grief after husband’s death found guilty of murdering him Prosecutors say Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that he drank

those wacky authors, whatever will they get up to next?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

A list of state laws in Australia targeting protests and free speech State governments have played a key part in stripping Australians’ democratic rights at the behest of powerful interest groups

'A list of state laws in Australia targeting protests and free speech' [and thus ensuring an Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi! brand of Social Cohesion™ that will last a thousand years].

www.deepcutnews.com/p/a-list-of-...

From the Jordan to the Mediterranean?

I think you've got a few years left in you

Capital gains tax discount ‘overwhelmingly’ benefits investors in Australia’s richest electorates, analysis shows Chief executive of Acoss, who commissioned the study says ‘it’s clear this tax break funnels billions into the wealthiest parts of our country’

Der!

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Fourteen Ways of Looking by Erin Vincent review – an exhilarating, dazzling reckoning with grief The author confronts the trauma of losing her parents as a teenager in a succession of fragments – almost all of which contain the word ‘fourteen’

I wrote about Fourteen Ways of Looking by Erin Vincent for GuarDian Australia, a very accomplished, very affecting work. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

If you win most literary prizes, you pay tax. If you win The Block, you don’t. How is this fair? Australia’s laws are inconsistent when it comes to taxing winnings – and most artists and writers are the losers.

@evelynaraluen.bsky.social was on the money when she called for tax free prizes.

The PM's lit award is tax free, time to bring other prizes in line.

I’m still writing my newsletter Infra Dig, which covers digital literary culture and related themes. The latest deals mainly with editorial independence - at Meanjin and LARB.

infra-dig.ghost.io/returning-ho...

Just overheard someone confuse Animal Farm with Animal House. This is potentially the greatest cultural mashup since R.E.M. Speedwagon.

1 year editorial cadetship Job at The Conversation AU/NZ in Melbourne, Australia Apply for THE CONVERSATION AU/NZ 1 year editorial cadetship Job in Melbourne, Australia with Compensation: $68,000

The Conversation is hiring two cadet journalists, send this on to all the young journos and new grads jobs.theconversation.com/jobs/5026001...

Cutting the creative state: funding changes threaten the cultural future of Melbourne, arts workers warn Creative Victoria funding has dropped by more than $20m since 2022 and organisations including Writers Victoria now face closure

One longtime Victorian arts leader tells the Guardian: “I think the wider cultural shock is [Melbourne] is going to go from the cultural capital to the least funded city in Australia.”

New from me today:

Presumably because the Labor Party will immediately feel obliged to follow them down the racist rabbit hole

A history of assassination reveals how ‘targeted killings’ became an extension of state power Shot, stabbed, poisoned with frog toxin – a new book reveals how the killing of political opponents has emerged from the shadows of government secrecy.

"... akin to running a razor blade down the history of international politics” – Kevin Foster on the modern history of assassination

theconversation.com/a-history-of...

A legacy to challenge and inspire: farewell Lionel Fogarty, poet and activist

Novelist Alexis Wright has described Lionel Fogarty as Aboriginal literature’s ‘poet laureate’. His was a life of energy, art, yarning, poetry and politics.

Just mistyped Australia as "Austhralia" and I think it is now my preferred spelling.

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)