Dr LJ Maher (cis: she/her, 🌈, AuDHD, Quaintrelle)
@littleread.bsky.social
530 followers 1.7K following 96 posts
@TheSwearyScholar on TikTok. Settler-Coloniser on Stolen Land. Research: transmedial life-writing, literature & law, music & memoir, book & reading histories. Lecturer in Publishing Studies at Melbourne Uni. Views my own, not my employer's, etc.
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Reposted by Dr LJ Maher (cis: she/her, 🌈, AuDHD, Quaintrelle)
charlotteashley.bsky.social
As a used bookseller, this is maddening because every damn day I see appetite for strange books, old books, indie books, forgotten books. Readers are there. They love to explore the store & buy things they've never heard of.

Publishing's biggest problem is that they've forgotten how to sell books.
tajjaisen.bsky.social
I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...
The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus
Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it
thewalrus.ca
littleread.bsky.social
Also, let's discuss the claim from the client's representative that the legal practitioner is accepting donations to the client's defence: it's been a while since I studied trusts accounting, but that doesn't sound like a accepting funds that can be returned.
6/

#Auslaw
littleread.bsky.social
In addition, would these social media posts breach s18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975? For funsies is there anything in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 about interfering with electoral materials?
5/

#Auslaw
littleread.bsky.social
5.1.2 is likely to a material degree to—
(i) be prejudicial to, or diminish the public confidence in, the administration of justice, or
(ii) bring the profession into disrepute.

4/
#Auslaw
littleread.bsky.social
5 Standard of conduct—dishonest or disreputable conduct
5.1 A solicitor must not engage in conduct, in the course of legal practice or otherwise, which—
5.1.1 demonstrates that the solicitor is not a fit and proper person to practise law, or

3/

#Auslaw
littleread.bsky.social
4 Other fundamental ethical duties
4.1 A solicitor must also—
4.1.4 avoid any compromise to their integrity and professional independence...

2/

#AusLaw
littleread.bsky.social
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...
Dear NSW Legal Services Commissioner, question re the Solicitors' Conduct Rules & the practitioner mentioned in the attached article:
1. Do the social media posts that the ABC has identified in this article breach the following provisions of the SCR?

1/
#AusLaw
Lawyer for Neo-Nazi praised Hitler's Mein Kampf as 'brilliant book'
Matthew Hopkins shared racist and antisemitic material from the Neo-Nazi group on social media and described Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf as a "brilliant book" to his followers.
www.abc.net.au
Reposted by Dr LJ Maher (cis: she/her, 🌈, AuDHD, Quaintrelle)
eastangliabylines.co.uk
Heritage Open Days 2025 are from 12 - 21 Sept.

The Anna Sewell House where Black Beauty's author was born is open to the public.
Jarrolds, the novel's publisher, is also offering a History Tour.

The book changed attitudes to horse welfare.
Black Beauty, broken and rescued: 150 years of equine welfare
The legacy of Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty reminds us: cruelty to any creature is everyone’s concern
eastangliabylines.co.uk
littleread.bsky.social
Re #MeanjinJournal, a letter from myself and some of my colleagues to The University of Melbourne. #Meanjin is such an important part of Australia's literary ecosystem and losing it would be culturally and industrially devastating. #AusLit #AustralianWriters #Publishing #Unimelb

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Letter in support of Meanjin’s future

As members of the Publishing and Communications program’s staff at the University of Melbourne, we strongly support the continued existence of Meanjin Quarterly. From direct involvements with the journal during the past 25 years and more, we personally attest to the formative role Meanjin has played in the development of writers, editors and publishers, and an independent Australian cultural voice. The creative labour of thousands resonates deeply in the fabric of this cultural institution founded by Clem Christesen in Meanjin/Brisbane in 1940.
 
We call on the University of Melbourne to recognise the rich and continuing social, political and literary value of Meanjin by ensuring its future. The journal is a living resource for our teaching, and vital to our students. Its publications fill our reading lists with ideas from the best minds of our time. It has uplifted many of our students through publication, internships, partnerships and employment, and its connection to the University is part of what makes our writing and editing programs valuable and comparable to other leading universities on the international stage.
 
We believe the University’s enduring purpose of benefiting society compels it to take swift action to preserve the journal and sustain its continued publication, preferably within the University itself. At the very least, the University should do all it can, acting in good faith, to transfer the journal’s cultural and IP assets to another institution prepared to save it. Culturally, the University of Melbourne has benefited immensely from its support of the journal since 1945; the extinction of the journal would be its enduring loss but an even greater loss to the community the University serves.
 
Signed by:
 
Sybil Nolan
Tim Coronel
Matt Holden
LJ Maher
Fiannuala Morgan  
Sharon Mullins  
Beth Driscoll
Claire Parnell
Nicola Redhouse
Hollen Singleton
Bec Kavanagh
littleread.bsky.social
How did my class on identifying audiences for digital content become a history lesson on Melbourne's Queer clubbing scene between 2000-2012?
littleread.bsky.social
I am thinking Angela Carter's The Passion of New Eve, Fay Weldon's The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil, Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods and Frankisstein, Frances Cha's If I Had Your Face, etc...
littleread.bsky.social
I am reading Replace Me by Amber Husain (2021, Peninsula Press) and 1) it is more prescient now than it was when it was published, good golly. 2) I love the term "fantasies of self-reconstruction" that she coins to describe Bulgakov's book The Heart of a Dog. Can y'all recommend similar reads?
littleread.bsky.social
Sorry! Chunky fingers. Was meant to be Ben Aaranovitch.
littleread.bsky.social
I am back in front of a lecture hall! I have no sleep, no caffeine and all the vyvanse. Buckle up for Legal Issues in Arts and Media #PUBL90014 #HowToPourTheTeaNotSpillIt #AcademicSelfie
littleread.bsky.social
It's been a while so here's the #AcademicSelfie. I am back at work & loving it. My classes for s2 are prepped. Dragon is in childcare, I got a lil nap, the midwinter sun is shining, there's a new @benaaronflynn.bsky.social book, I am off to meet a friend for lunch & do some work in a beer garden.
littleread.bsky.social
Thank you for coming to my play. If you made it this far, please find attached an updated on The Dragon/ reason for parental leave.

#Law #BookNerd

She is crawling, starting to sign (AusLan), and desperate to walk. The cats are affeared.
Picture of a white infant with dark brown hair in a Miffy the bunny onesie sitting on a purple blanket. The infant is looking down. At their hands and their face is partially obscured.
littleread.bsky.social
Then I decided to check which edition I actually have.

And my life as both a legal scholar and book historian comes full circle.

Anyway. IMHO this book is genuinely the most accessible take Australian Constitutional law, so buy it and/or borrow it from your library. /4

#Law #BookNerd
Photograph of copyright page of authors old 1st edition of Federal Constitutional Law: A Contemporary View dated 2001.
littleread.bsky.social
Thought, "hey I should probs spring for the new edition, undergrad was a long time ago and Constitutional law is slow but I may need a more "Contemporary View"."

Please note, I have taught constitutional law in the intervening years and I am not as funny as I think I am. /3

#Law #BookNerd
Picture of Thomson Reuters webpage selling 6th (2024) edition of Federal Constitutional Law: A contemporary view by Sarah Joseph and Melissa Castan
littleread.bsky.social
I came across Old Trusty from my undergrad days and figured it's always a useful book to have around when I'm trying to explain what an "implied freedom of political speech" is to my publishing & editing (ie non-law) students. /2

#Law #BookNerd

Ping @profsarahj.bsky.social @drmcastan.bsky.social
A copy of the book Federal Constitutional Law: A Contemporary View by S Joseph and M Castan.
littleread.bsky.social
I am finally back at work post parental leave. I thought I should pull out books from the Home Library that I will need in the Office Library. /1

#Law #BookNerd
Three piles of books on a table.
Reposted by Dr LJ Maher (cis: she/her, 🌈, AuDHD, Quaintrelle)
littleread.bsky.social
I am cleaning, looking after Dragon and listening to Triple J's Hottest 100 from 1998 and I hated it at the time but the Sunscreen Song has stood the test of time.
youtu.be/sTJ7AzBIJoI?...

#music #90s #nostalgia
Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen
YouTube video by steffyweffy777
youtu.be
Reposted by Dr LJ Maher (cis: she/her, 🌈, AuDHD, Quaintrelle)
pagingdrpaige.bsky.social
I'm just a queer theory scholar begging sports journalists to consider what they have written before hitting publish
Reposted by Dr LJ Maher (cis: she/her, 🌈, AuDHD, Quaintrelle)
hofferdal.bsky.social
This new book by @uolpress.bsky.social is nothing short but a monumental achievement on Latin American #liberationtheology! Among the most interesting (English) surveys in recent years!
The chapter on Fals Borda by Díaz-Arévalo @sheffielduni.bsky.social is a gem.
Foreword by M. Zechmeister at UCA.
Facsimile of table of contents from the book "Liberation Theology and Praxis in Contemporary Latin America As it Was in the Beginning?"

Pablo Bradbury and Niall H.D. Geraghty (eds.), London: The University of London Press, 2025.