Milan Kundera observed, "Most protagonists of great novels do not have children. Scarcely 1 percent of the world's population is childle...

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was published.

YouTube video by Giramondo Publishing

Australia’s literary culture depends for its life on its journals. Literary journals are not just clearing houses for pithy snatches of commentary and readable middlebrow fiction — they’re incubators ...

Australia’s literary culture depends for its life on its journals. Literary journals are not just clearing houses for pithy snatches of commentary and readable middlebrow fiction — they’re incubators ...

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

Following the abrupt closure of Australian literary journal Meanjin after 85 years, Splinter journal editor Farrin Foster reflects on how literature’s quiet power makes it one of our least-valued art ...

MUP says it is ‘no longer viable’ to make the literary magazine – but almost none of them are financially viable. That’s not their purpose or value * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Some years ago, I wrote about the terrible repercussions that would follow if the literary magazine Island were forced to close following its defunding by the Tasmanian state government’s arts funding body. I argued that there would be significant impacts for readers and writers throughout the nation. In the end, the magazine survived, but only because of a lengthy period of seriously hard work by the magazine’s staff and board that raised enough support to keep it off the chopping block and get it back on its feet. This appears to be in embarrassing contrast to the efforts at Meanjin, where the board of Melbourne University Publishing has announced that after 85 years the magazine will simply close, making its two part-time staff (who were not involved in the decision) redundant and shutting the doors on what has long been regarded as Australia’s most prestigious literary magazine. Where is any sort of similar commitment to keep the magazine going in some form? As author Jennifer Mills wrote on social media: “The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers … An entirely avoidable disaster.” Continue reading...

Price of everything, value of nothing dept.

Save Meanjin: It Matters.