Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · 1d

What’s this? Yet more research concluding that robust public investment in the arts yields economic benefits?

A great outcome for Ireland, and a rebuke to all those tired cliches about freeloading artists sapping the resources of the state.

But also, art enriches us all, economic benefits or no.

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Reposted by Catriona Menzies-Pike

Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 22d

New:
A deep dive with some alarming new revelations on the silencing of one of the few remaining independent progressive voices in Australian media. Who killed Meanjin?

Who killed Meanjin?

And why won’t Melbourne University Publishing engage with efforts to save it?

www.crikey.com.au

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · 20d

Very easy to do:

support.academia.edu/hc/en-us/art...

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Reposted by Catriona Menzies-Pike

Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 26d

"It's been put to me that literary magazines are ephemeral, and when established ones close, their absence creates a space for new magazines to thrive... And yet in Australia in 2025, the space left when a cultural organisation closes is hardly fertile terrain. It's more like a vacuum"

Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · 26d

New newsletter out in the world: just one more thing about the Meanjin debacle; a 1963 open letter on funding Ozlit mags; a tough review of a book that will sell; a bad date movie.

infra-dig.ghost.io/so-long-mean...

So long, Meanjin

Meanjin down the drain, criticism still in crisis – plus Wuthering Heights and a withering review

infra-dig.ghost.io

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · 26d

New newsletter out in the world: just one more thing about the Meanjin debacle; a 1963 open letter on funding Ozlit mags; a tough review of a book that will sell; a bad date movie.

infra-dig.ghost.io/so-long-mean...

So long, Meanjin

Meanjin down the drain, criticism still in crisis – plus Wuthering Heights and a withering review

infra-dig.ghost.io

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Reposted by Catriona Menzies-Pike

Jason Wilson @jasonaw.bsky.social · 26d

diving back into the newsletter with a new outlook www.the-end.news/after-kirk-r...

After Kirk, right-wingers double down on eliminating opponents

As of this writing, there are few solid clues as to the identity or affiliations of the individual/s responsible for the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on Wednesday at at Utah ...

www.the-end.news

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 8

Thank you - I’m still quite enraged to have had occasion to write it

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 8

Thanks for sharing Alice. You can imagine all the deep sighing and hea-shaking I did while writing this piece. What a shambles

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 8

Thanks! I hope MUP gets around to answering some questions about it all

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 8

I wrote for Crikey about the decision to shut Meanjin down - and to sever a connection to a hopeful progressive vision of Australian culture

Crikey @crikey.com.au · Sep 8

Opinion | Melbourne University Press says it shut down Meanjin for "purely financial reasons". Perhaps the university could have used some of its $273 million surplus to safeguard the seminal journal, @catrionamp.bsky.social‬ writes.

Meanjin's 'financial' shutdown doesn't add up

www.crikey.com.au

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 8

Thanks for sharing, Martin!

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 4

I am distressed and angered by this decision - but want to interject that in the current dire Australian cultural funding environment, and in the context of equally dire cuts to universities, a few hundred thousand dollars is hardly a trivial demand. Our sector has been pared to the bones.

Charlie Lewis @theshufflediary.bsky.social · Sep 4

This, from Jonathan Green, pretty much sums it up: “Meanjin’s financial demand is trivial … a few hundred thousand dollars … the cultural loss of its death is as significant as it is tragic.”
www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing

Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.

www.crikey.com.au

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 4

Grim tidings here for Meanjin staff and contributors, and for Ozlit more broadly. A surprise to me to because I’d been under the impression that Meanjin’s situation at UniMelb afforded the journal some enviable financial security. Clearly I was wrong. I have a lotta questions about this.

Crikey @crikey.com.au · Sep 4

Exclusive: Australia’s second-oldest literary journal, Meanjin, is being shut down today for "financial" reasons, Crikey can reveal.

Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing

Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.

www.crikey.com.au

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 3

WUTHERING goddamnit

Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 3

I thought 2025 had pretty much drained my capacity for contributing to le discourse. Thank you, Emerald Fennell, for restoring me momentarily to the moment.

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Sep 3

Valentine’s Day release wtf. Withering Heights is a helluva novel but a date movie it is not!! (unless cursed intergenerational abuse narratives put you in the mood for lurve.)

This maxim applies to the film heralded by the lurid trailer below or any other of the thousands of WH adaptations.

Film Updates @thefilmupdates.bsky.social · Sep 3

The official teaser for Emerald Fennell’s ‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’ starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

In theaters Valentine’s Day 2026.

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Aug 24

No one wants me in their book club (and for good reason)

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Aug 24

So no book club then?

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Reposted by Catriona Menzies-Pike

Jinghua Qian @jinghuaqian.com · Aug 14

Israel has killed 180 Palestinian journalists since Oct 2023. There are 120 of us in this video remembering our slain Palestinian colleagues - it's staggering to see so many faces and realise that more than this number of media workers have been killed.
#StopKillingJournalists #SanctionIsraelNow

MEAA @withmeaa.bsky.social · Aug 14

Targeting journalists is a war crime.
As colleagues, we remember them.
meaa.io/45A4vZ5

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Aug 4

I wrote about Brandon Jack’s debut novel Pissants for Guardian Australia. It evoked in me a similar response to Trainspotting back in the day, and I guess whether or not that’s a positive evaluation depends on your reading of that novel. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Pissants by Brandon Jack review – is this novel a critique or a celebration of toxic masculinity? Even it isn’t sure

The former AFL player’s debut novel barely has a plot, following a group of aggressive, entitled footy players as they get wasted and treat women like props

www.theguardian.com

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Jul 30

Carney’s statement here: www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...

Statement by Prime Minister Carney on Canada’s recognition of a Palestinian state

For decades, it was hoped that this outcome would be achieved as part of a peace process built around a negotiated settlement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.

www.pm.gc.ca

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Jul 30

Your move, Albo. It’s time.

Andrea Woo @andreawoo.bsky.social · Jul 30

New: Prime Minister Mark Carney announces that Canada will recognize the state of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Jul 11

One assumes a big advance to make up for the rush and utter embarrassment

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Jul 11

I read your excellent piece just before I stumbled on this announcement so I was primed for disgust. Side observation: I can see how a 3-voice conversation might play out in interesting ways through a newsletter or other form of serial digital publication. The quick book just seems such a waste

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Catriona Menzies-Pike @catrionamp.bsky.social · Jul 11

(And let’s be real: this one is going to be very very sneery.)

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