The Outer Spaces of FictionReviewing Pip Adam’s Audition and Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Astronauts, Lauren Collee ponders the challenges of setting stories in outer space. How far can the human imagination stray from Earth’s orbit? Is it ever far enough?Lauren Collee14 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
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
Just a Little LongerWhy did books start being divided into chapters? Joshua Barnes reviews Nicholas Dames’ history of literary segmentation, a study that slices through and pauses over what chapters have always told us about the times we live in.Joshua Barnes7 Aug. 2025
Air SupplyIn her review of Hasib Hourani’s rock flight, Dženana Vucic sifts through the poetic devices mobilised in the book’s call to Palestinian liberation. Motifs of birds and breath amass a charge as they testify to what Palestinians call sumud.Dženana Vucic4 Aug. 2025
I, Was, Am?What remains of the self when familiar markers of identity – names, physical traits, personal histories – are lost? Nina Culley considers what answers Anne de Marcken’s latest novel has to offer via its zombie narrator’s perspective.Nina Culley17 July. 2025
The Outer Spaces of FictionReviewing Pip Adam’s Audition and Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Astronauts, Lauren Collee ponders the challenges of setting stories in outer space. How far can the human imagination stray from Earth’s orbit? Is it ever far enough?Lauren Collee14 July. 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
The Shadow and the AcolyteBraiding the story of a literary friendship that soured with an account of changes at Australian universities since the 1970s, Joseph Steinberg shows the role that tertiary education has played in shaping writers’ work and sense of vocation.Joseph Steinberg30 May. 2025
Woman AloneDrawing on her experiences bushwalking through Western Sydney and her reading of Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall, Jumaana Abdu reflects on ‘abject freedom’, a concept that points to the paradoxical and precarious nature of women’s freedom in solitude....Jumaana Abdu27 May. 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
Settling ScoresIn the wake of the women’s World Cup, Ruth McHugh-Dillon speaks to Ellen van Neerven about playing sport on Indigenous land and the challenges – of classification and acknowledgement – laid down by their latest book, Personal Score.Ruth McHugh-Dillon, Ellen van Neerven28 Aug. 2023
