Judith Hermann has been writing critically acclaimed short stories and novels for almost three decades. Having burst onto the literary scene with the 1998 collection The...
“Scarborough Fair” is what Ellen Stekert calls a “go around song,” one that is passed from singer to singer, down centuries, across oceans, shape-shifting all the...
Right now, according to British political theorist Jonathan White, the future seems very close. Our time horizon is closing in. Crises press in on us, shadowing...
In a sweeping introduction to his 1958 book Australian Democracy the Melbourne political scientist A.F. Davies notoriously claimed that “the characteristic talent of Australians is not...
Does anyone remember “American carnage”? In his 2017 inaugural address Donald Trump portrayed a collapsing society, emphasising in particular the “crime and gangs and drugs” destroying...
A few ordinary games as a defender with the Tasmanian Football League’s Glenorchy club ended any prospect I had of a footballing career. In those days,...
Australia’s relations with Russia have what you might call a colourful history. Spying has been at the heart of it. Tony Abbott famously vowed to shirtfront...
The title of Alyx Gorman’s engrossing new book All Women Want is surely a nod or retort to the “great question” Sigmund Freud claimed he hadn’t...
Blake Bailey’s fall from grace was precipitous. After years of trying, he had finally made it. Yes, he had written a memoir and well-received biographies of...
In my day job, I run a lab dedicated to research and development in AI for law enforcement and community safety. We’re preoccupied with building what’s...