Festival chief warned author's removal would 'decimate' Writers' Week An extraordinary series of emails sheds light on the reservations that preceded, and internal fallout that followed, the decision to scrap Randa Abdel-Fattah's Writers' Week appearance.

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

Australia's universities have found themselves in crisis. But it has been decades in the making | Hannah Forsyth Rather than a set of teaching and learning relationships, universities have become a bunch of metrics to be gamed. Unwinding these systems will take effort

The Guardian has partnered with the Australian Historical Association to use history to explain stuff. Today I do the University crisis.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Why doesn’t Hobart have a Chinatown? Early Chinese communities might seem to have left little tangible trace. But such an absence does not necessarily mean the absence of a Chinese history.

This was a fun little piece to write with @baibi.bsky.social from our @everydayheritage.bsky.social research.

#history

Israel is responsible for two in three journalist killings across the globe in 2024 and 2025. The Israeli military has committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government’s military since CPJ began documentation in 1992.

Read more in CPJ’s #2025KilledReport: cpj.org?p=553549

The Conversation only publishes affiliated academics AND doesn't publish opinion pieces – if I was editor at a different publication, I'd commission you myself! So go for it – you have a great angle on a hot news story, I reckon.

You should propose an opinion piece on this somewhere - quick!

Sydney morning herald article by Paul Sakkal, headlined, "‘No nice-to-haves’: Albanese demands ministers find billions in savings for May budget"

ah yes, the rise of the populist right marks the perfect time to make services worse, and families poorer archive.is/M1LCu

Yes, when Bert gifts his employees Ayn Rand, it's when they've shown a willingness to do anything to get ahead. It's a compliment from Bert, but not so much from the show to the characters.

Never not called them sneakers! What do you call them?

Very cute piece by Jane Howard about her enormous laugh.

If you're combing through the Epstein files with an LLM, or are reading people who are, I'd exercise a degree of caution.
Watch this test from tiktok of various models to do something simple like count the spells in the Harry Potter novels & think about the complexity of typo ridden emails (1/2)

Lawrence Krauss being endearing again: "good news btw is that woman on conciliation committee seems like a sweetie.. she is old…. not some young metoo bitch."

BUT, yes, of course it's important and a wonderful thing in its own right! Go QUT for doing it!

I feel like it's a smart acquisition for a university with a creative writing program, in that it signals being serious & invested in the area, at a time many programs are closing. And if you're a student choosing where to enrol, the uni with a serious literary journal stands out among options.

‘New Zealanders are inventive by necessity’: how the master clown Philippe Gaulier shaped NZ theatre

Master clown and French theatre guru Philippe Gaulier has died at 82. His influence will live on in generations of artists from New Zealand.

Haha, you are free to disagree with me (even grumpily) any time, and I won’t hold it against you! 😂

Well, that will remain a mystery re Melb, yes …

And obvs course fees & cost of living are driving the decline in creative courses. But surely it will help make QUT stand out to those students who do want to study one. And marks them as serious about investing in lit.

Meanjin has been resurrected by QUT, in a clever move Cancelled Australian literary journal Meanjin returns to its origins in Brisbane, where it was founded in 1940. It’s a good move for more than one reason.

Hooray for QUT's resurrection of Meanjin! @aunz.theconversation.com

Angela Glindemann reports. reflecting on how it's a smart move for QUT, at a time when creative arts courses are in crisis. Might Meanjin be an enrolment drawcard?

theconversation.com/meanjin-has-...

Friday essay: I grew up fearing Queensland cops. Then I hung out with 17 Gold Coast detectives Sally Breen wanted to know more about real police work after she met a Queensland top cop who seemed good. The stories she found sit under her skin like lava.

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...

If you do this (or find someone who has), please share! I'd like to read it too. It would need someone to ask a lot of questions ... and would be well worth reading, of course.

Interesting! And maybe, yeah ... I also think it's interesting how festivals have recovered from Covid and that time of no funds, or VERY little. That's pretty impressive, really. Though it's still left many lit orgs, especially events based ones, in more precarious positions.

What is the future of Australia’s embattled writers festivals? Australia’s literary festivals are under threat from culture wars, climate risks, new hate speech laws and ongoing funding scarcity.

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-...

What is the future of Australia’s embattled writers festivals? Australia’s literary festivals are under threat from culture wars, climate risks, new hate speech laws and ongoing funding scarcity.

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-...

Rocket or arugula? How a salad vegetable mapped the Italian diaspora The words used to describe this peppery green are a linguistic fossil record revealing the history of Italian migration.

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

Oh, thank you Gabe! That makes me happy. Yes, I loved doing those workshops over many years. And it’s such an important organisation. Writers centres do so much invisible work!

If we looked into it, I think we’d find SO MANY authors who got their start through a writers centre.

Writers Victoria has been defunded – but writers’ centres are ‘fundamental’ to literary culture Authors Hannah Kent and Toni Jordan got their start through writers centre initiatives. If Victoria loses its centre, it will be the only mainland state without one.

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 Authors Hannah Kent and Toni Jordan got their start through writers centre initiatives. If Victoria loses its centre, it will be the only mainland state without one.

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...

In our age of AI and constant crisis, real-life community is powerful and precious So much is deeply wrong with the world right now, but when it comes to the sphere of life that is within my own influence – my home, my heart and my place within my community – I am the happiest I hav...

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...

Rob Hirst was a force of nature, a born showman who led Midnight Oil from the back Phenomenal drummer and percussionist was an equally accomplished songwriter who embodied the band’s bloody-minded spirit

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...