What better than a long weekend to slow down and do some reading? We’ve trawled through our archive to compile for you an Easter reading collection spanning from 1988 to 2020.
Read it here: shorturl.at/S3TYO
Remember: you can read past issues of Westerly for free on our website!
#AusLit
In order to understand us, he takes on a job as a brickies labourer, immersing himself in blue-collar culture
Read the full article: Book Review – They’re a Weird Mob – Nino Culotta
▸ lttr.ai/AjT10
#bookreview #NinoCulotta #auslit
🚀 #ScienceFiction
😱 #Dystopian
💻 #SocialMedia
🏳️🌈 #Queer
#Murder is just a keystroke away!
#books #gay #bi #bisexual #dystopian #scifi #sciencefiction #auslit #booksky @ninestarpress.bsky.social
kevinklehr.com/tayler-dysto...
It's time for new ideas, new voices, new gatekeepers, new strategies, new incentives, new politics to support Australian culture and the arts. Submissions to the Australian Government's consultation on its new cultural policy close 24 May. #ausarts #auslit #revive
www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/n...
@donnamcameron.bsky.social's 'The Rewilding' is our latest #bookreview!
Reviewer @wattswrites.aus.social.ap.brid.gy writes that this book 'portrays a world on the edge, a world of last chances, and the countless opportunities that are still worth fighting for'.
Read here: shorturl.at/GX9sT
#AusLit
My latest #substack article.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
#writing #writinglife #authorlife #amwriting #australianauthor #auslit #fiction #amwritingfiction
In the middle is the artwork 'Slumbering sea, Mentone' by Tom Roberts, depicting a seaside scene, with a purple tint. The text reads: "Southerly Poetry Prize. Submissions now open. Submissions close 15 April 2026. Visit websits for T&Cs and to submit."
Purple text reads: "Southerly is excited to announce Australia's newest literary prize. As part of our ongoing revival plan, the inaugral Southerly Poetry Prize will open for entries 1st March with a submission deadline of 15th April 2026. All Australian poets are eligible to enter. The winner will receive a cash prize of $2000 AUD, with their winning entry published in Southerly 81.1 in October 2026. Along with all shortlisted entries, the winner will also be published in Southerly online. The judges for this year's inaugral prize are Paul Dawson (Southerly's poetry editor), along with esteemed poets Kate Fagan and Bronwyn Lea."
As part of our ongoing revival plan, the inaugural Southerly Poetry Prize is now open to all Australian poets. Entries from both established and emerging writers are welcome.
#southerly #auslit #poetry #poetryprize
A quote from the blog overlaying an image generated with Adobe Firefly, responding to the prompt "an author training a generative language model on their own corpus of writing". (Full image description on website.) The text reads: “I am not looking for a surrogate to take over the writing processes that I so adore. My experiments with technology, including machine learning, are designed to augment rather than replace my creative practice. I write because of an overwhelming impulse to contextualise my experiences within literary and sociopolitical fields; technology offers ways of expanding the known. Training a SLM to speak in my voice and style—what I think of as digital mimesis—offers new entry points into my research interests around archives and the multiple self. A self-mimetic model becomes a kind of living archive—queryable, a laboratory for testing authorial identity and versioned selves.”
Join Jenny Hedley on her second adventure into programming “JenAI”, a small language model built on 280,000 words of her own writing.
southerlylitmag.com.au/to-each-auth...
#southerly #JenAI #AusLit #creativepractice
This image reads: "In this limited series blog-style investigation, I will write about training an open source small language models ("SLMs") on my own creative writing—and my mother’s. Both the training and the prompting of my JenAI model will be run locally on my hard drive to protect the integrity of my unpublished and copyrighted works. My aims are to assess the feasibility of authors training their own proprietary SLMs (in a move which is replicable, and very David versus Goliath), and to learn through experimentation what benefits there are in replicating one’s authorial style and voice for personal use. JENNY HEDLEY." In the background is an image the author generated with student access to Adobe Firefly, which is trained on licensed images and is a more ethical option for image generation than the unethically trained models. The prompt used was "genAI gobbling copyrighted works during model training". It shows a robot surrounded by books. The robot stirs a large bowl, and is pouring manuscript pages, records, and code out of it. Two business people watch the robot. An artist, marked by their paint-splattered jacket, is facing away towards the shelves of books.
This week on the Southerly blog, Jenny Hedley shares the first of four posts exploring the creation of her very own "JenAI". Read it now on the Southerly website:
southerlylitmag.com.au/down-with-co...
#southerly #auslit #literarycriticism #creativepractice #smalllanguagemodels #SLMs #AIethics
From Melbourne to Dublin: Milligan's Shellybanks Haunts in All the Right Ways
#Shellybanks #AustralianBooks #CrimeFiction #LouiseMilligan #AusNews #AusLit
thedailyperspective.org/article/2026-03-04-from-...
Long before the Hanging Gardens Precinct, in Hobart, there was the Bath Arms pub with Radford’s Circus out the back. Tassie had a significant place in the early history of popular entertainment in Australia. #auslit #tasmania
The person who wants you dead may not be human!
Visit kevinklehr.com/tayler-dysto...
#dystopian #booksky @ninestarpress.bsky.social
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifibooks #dystopianbooks #sciencefictionbooks #auslit
Murder is just a keystroke away.
Visit kevinklehr.com/tayler-dysto...
#dystopian #booksky @ninestarpress.bsky.social #sciencefiction #scifi #scifibooks #dystopianbooks #sciencefictionbooks #auslit
This week @islandmag.bsky.social's incoming poetry editor Tim Loveday reviews 'Appreciation' by Liam Pieper for our Editor's Desk!
To read Tim's review of this satirical piece of metafiction, visit: shorturl.at/SFwhO
#AusLit #bookreview #satire
👼 #Angels
🎭 #theatre #theater
😇 #afterlife
An #MMRomance #comedy in the theatre district of the afterlife.
#auslit @ninestarpress.bsky.social #mm #fantasybooks #fantasy #ownvoices #actinglife #booksky #actors #angel #gay
Check out kevinklehr.com/actors-angel...
We’re excited to be kicking off book reviews on the Editor’s Desk for 2026 with ‘That Galloping Horse’ by Petra White (@shearsmanbooks.bsky.social)!
‘[...] a showcase of free verse poems expressed with often chillingly beautiful intensity'.
Read it here: shorturl.at/X7IOC
#AusLit #bookreview
Missed me on the @wrotepodcast.com? Check out my chat with Baz & Vance here, plus my previous appearances on all their cringe glory! #GayBooks #LGBTQBooks #MMRomance #GayHorror #QueerHorror #Booksky #AuthorsofBluesky #IndieAuthor #CanLit #AusLit #GayRomance
Grayson's love interest, Milo, just before they meet.
Visit kevinklehr.com/fantasy-and-urban-fantas...
#kindleunlimited #books #booksky #UrbanFantasy #fantasy #MMRomance #mm #wizard #warlock #auslit #comedy #witches #magic #influencers #socialmedia #paranormalbooks #ownvoices
#auslit #substack #bookreview #emmagrey #booksky #australianfiction #ausfiction
Read this #blog at open.substack.com/pub/kevinkle...
Opening chapter.
Visit kevinklehr.com/fantasy-and-...
#kindleunlimited #books #booksky #UrbanFantasy #fantasy #MMRomance #mm #wizard #warlock #auslit #comedy #witches #magic #ownvoices
It's not easy learning to be a wizard when your mentor is drunk all the time.
Visit kevinklehr.com/fantasy-and-...
#kindleunlimited #books #booksky #UrbanFantasy #fantasy #MMRomance #mm #wizard #warlock #auslit #comedy #witches #magic #ownvoices
I'm new to #substack, slowly getting my head around the platform. Come and say hi.
#writinglife #writing #socialmedia #author #auslit
kevinklehr.substack.com?r=2rhrb8&utm...
Used paperback in cardboard box of books. Top book says The Hand That Signed The Paper and says the author is Helen Demidenko.
You never know what you’ll come across at the tip shop.
#auslit #ozlit #IYKYK
Grayson didn't know he was a wizard, until a simple sneeze conjured up a small pink elephant.
Visit kevinklehr.com/fantasy-and-...
#kindleunlimited #books #booksky #UrbanFantasy #fantasy #MMRomance #mm #wizard #warlock #auslit #comedy #witches #magic #ownvoices
That name change says it all... "Creative Enterprises" 🤢
"As redundancies and restructures whittle down an already straitened workforce, remaining staff say their institutions are increasingly led by bureaucrats"
Sacrificing everything to the cult of mediocrity 🤑
#AusPol #AusLit 📚 #AusArts 🎨
The Southerly logo, a cherub blowing air on the journal's title. The text reads "The Southerly Poetry Prize 2026".
The inaugural Southerly Poetry Prize will open for entries 1st March and close 15th April 2026. The winner will receive a cash prize of $2000 AUD, with their winning entry published in Southerly 81.1 in October 2026. All Australian poets are eligible to enter.
shorturl.at/jxRD2
#auslit #poetry
🚢Ocean Voyage
💘Love interest
🧙♂Magic
🐴Pegasus
🥲Learning to love oneself
☠Murderous harp player
Never fall in love on Wednesday.
#books #ebooks #ebook #audiobooks #audiobook #fantasy #fantasybooks #gay #booksky @ninestarpress.bsky.social #auslit
More info at kevinklehr.com/fantasy-and-...
Some good news for a change!
"Queensland University of Technology announced on Wednesday it had acquired the 85-year-old journal ... QUT’s successful bid marked a full circle for Meanjin, which was founded in Brisbane/Meanjin by Clem Christesen in 1940 before moving to Melbourne in 1945"
#AusLit 📚
Should they retitle it Phoenix? It looks like Meanjin is back. #LitFic #Auslit.
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
This image reads "Submissions to Southerly 81.1 'Ireland and Other Islands' are open now, and close 30th March. We are welcoming submissions of fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry, on themes of Ireland and the ties that bind Ireland and Australia". This text is followed by the Southerly logo, a cherub blowing air onto the word "Southerly".
This image reads "You can now donate to help bring Australia's oldest literary journal into the future. Until the 30th of June 2026, you can donate to Southerly via the Australian Cultural Fund. These funds will support the publication of new Australian literature, poetry, and criticism. Donations of $2 or more are tax-deductible." It then shows a QR code, which links to https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2EMn00000WH6BRMA1/southerly-literary-magazine-20262027
This image reads "'First, The Future' and all past issues online and in stores now. Until the launch of 'Ireland and Other Islands', you can read Southerly 80.1 'First, The Future' and all past issues of Southerly via Informit. You can buy issues and subscriptions to Southerly in digital or physical form any time from our website."
Here are some of the ways you can get involved with Southerly, Australia's oldest literary journal, in 2026! #auslit #australia #literature #submissionsopen
