Translating the TranscendentMay Ngo considers the spiritual truths probed by Jumaana Abdu’s Translations, and what it misses despite its aspirations, in light of the theological novel. As Ngo argues, fiction that reaches for the divine must remain in touch with the concrete....May Ngo16 Sept. 2025
‘Infinite Resources, Secrets, Plans, Schemes’Reviewing Charmian Clift’s ‘new novel’, Beth McLean examines the author’s ability to invest the everyday with opulence – and the tribute Clift pays to the unsung alchemic skill of women in the domestic sphere.Beth McLean12 Sept. 2025
Bastards!From economic rationalism to libertarianism, neoliberalism appears under many guises. Reviewing Quinn Slobodian’s new book on neoliberal thought, James Ley shows that what its founders share with latter-day legatees is a commitment to inequality.James Ley5 Sept. 2025
Little Idiosyncrasies and Large Language ModelsLarge language models and digital interfaces promise to streamline our circuits of communication, but at what cost? Reviewing Rie Qudan and trends in Japanese fiction, Rebecca Suter notes that some humans still defy standard operating procedure.Rebecca Suter29 Aug. 2025
The Caul of RadianceDamian Maher considers The Seal Woman in light of Beverley Farmer’s fascination across her oeuvre with the threshold between life and death, rejuvenation and decay. Perhaps it is at this site of crossing where life is lived most vividly.Damian Maher26 Sept. 2025
In Defence of CreativityWhat role does creativity have to play in medicine? Reviewing two recent books on the psychoanalyst Marion Milner, Ellen Smith shows what Milner’s experiments in creativity tell us about the flaws in contemporary mental health care.Ellen Smith19 Sept. 2025
Translating the TranscendentMay Ngo considers the spiritual truths probed by Jumaana Abdu’s Translations, and what it misses despite its aspirations, in light of the theological novel. As Ngo argues, fiction that reaches for the divine must remain in touch with the concrete....May Ngo16 Sept. 2025
‘Infinite Resources, Secrets, Plans, Schemes’Reviewing Charmian Clift’s ‘new novel’, Beth McLean examines the author’s ability to invest the everyday with opulence – and the tribute Clift pays to the unsung alchemic skill of women in the domestic sphere.Beth McLean12 Sept. 2025
On EquivalenceTen years ago, Mez Breeze published ‘\oriGaM[e,]i[,+ U]/’ online. Sean Pryor revisits this work in the context of Breeze’s experiments mixing code and poetry. Can literary-critical tools help close the gap between natural and artificial languages?...Sean Pryor1 Oct. 2025
In Praise of DournessWhat challenge does the climate crisis pose to the way we think? Drawing on scientific and literary sources, Joshua Wodak prescribes a dour-ism that does not merely endure, but is alive to the uncertainties that condition human existence.Joshua Wodak29 Aug. 2025
David Malouf’s SurprisesAn internationally acclaimed novelist, David Malouf has also sustained a long and distinguished career as a poet. In this essay, Nicholas Jose charts the affinities and concerns of a poetic corpus that continues to surprise after six decades.Nicholas Jose25 July. 2025
The Fire Dragon, Between Myths and RealitiesQuah Ee Ling charts the changing connotations of the term ‘dragon lady’ from its provenance in Buddhist sutras onwards, exposing in the process the ethno-cultural and gendered myths that have shaped the life stories of Asian women migrants.Quah Ee Ling16 July. 2025
This Changes EverythingIn the wake of winning the 2025 NSW Translation Prize, Elizabeth Bryer converses with fellow translator Sarah Timmer Harvey on the impact of material conditions on one’s practice and on translation as a radical and radically personal act. Elizabeth Bryer, Sarah Timmer Harvey3 Oct. 2025
Living it Line by LineHossein Asgari and Kim Cheng Boey talk about the novels they have each written about a real-life poet: respectively, the mid-twentieth-century Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad and the Tang-dynasty Chinese poet Du Fu.Hossein Asgari, Kim Cheng Boey13 June. 2025
The Poet EatersIn 2015, Ben Etherington published ‘The Poet Tasters’, a forensic critique of Australian poetry reviewing. Poet and poetry podcaster Alice Allan talks to James Jiang about the enduring impact of Etherington’s essay ten years (and 300 episodes) on....Alice Allan, James Jiang10 June. 2025
The Vietnamese TurnThe SRB talks to Nathalie Nguyen about the changing historiography of the Vietnam War, with greater recognition of Vietnamese-language sources and the role of South Vietnam, and the personal stakes of this history for the Vietnamese diaspora. Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen29 Apr. 2025
