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Luke Horton

@lukehorton.bsky.social
152 followers 183 following 14 posts

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd… New novel, Time Together, March 25 via Scribe www.lukehorton.au

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Reposted by Luke Horton
Elias Greig @eliasgreig.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
This "woke ruined publishing" schtick from Martin McKenzie-Murray is particularly funny when you consider he writes for a media company that can't print the word "Palestine."
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Overland Journal @overlandjournal.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
“The university still has an opportunity to speak out against genocide and apartheid. It should do so.” @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social responds to the call for feedback on the right to protest and the “iSurveillance Policy” at the University of Melbourne.
overland.org.au
Conditions regarding protests: a response to the University of Melbourne - Overland literary journal
What has been done cannot be undone. But a reversal of the current descent into barbarism begins with justice for Gaza. The University of Melbourne still has an opportunity to speak out against genoci...
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Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Chris Minns’ refusal to apologise is extremely offensive, divisive and inflammatory. So much for social cohesion.
abc.net.au
Officer gave men permission to pray before they were removed from rally, police say
A group of Muslim men had already received police permission to worship during a Sydney protest before they were disrupted mid-prayer by officers, NSW Police Force confirms.
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Omar Sakr @omarsakr.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Over and over, we see this tactic employed by the powerful: they are never to be held accountable, to sacrifice anything, it’s up to individuals to do more, while the status quo remains unchanged and the system unchallenged, except to accrue more power and money. sakr.substack.com/p/the-stalki...
In my last piece here, I talked about the rhetoric employed against Hamas, or indeed any group the status quo is set against, and how neutral, militaristic rhetoric is always employed for Israel's actions. There's the emotive impact, of course, but it goes further. The rhetoric of hatred and terror, the sensationalist language, is used by the State to designate its enemies as essentially mindless, as less than animal, in order to render them exterminable.
Reason and civility can do nothing against these manifestations of embodied hatred; this magical thinking runs in reverse, too, where no logic is required, no reason, no thinking on the part either of the messenger or of the audience receiving this message, what you are expected to do is feel-first fear, and then reassurance at the bloodletting or promised "crack down" to follow. What's another right, another check on power, in the scheme of the nation's security? And that's what you're being asked rhetorically to shoulder, in these moments, each time: the whole nation-state rests on your willingness to give more power to the very same security and enforcement agencies that fail repeatedly.
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Omar Sakr @omarsakr.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Even the absence of hatred can be described as “hate” - this demonstrates the defining feature of this rhetoric, which is characterising any opposition to the functioning of the state as hateful, as antisemitism. And the apartheid state maintains its violences with hatred of Arabs and Muslims.
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Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
You can contact the Adelaide Festival here to express your opinion about their decision to ban Randa Abdel-Fattah. Please refrain from abuse.
adelaidefestival.com.au
Contact
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Amy Remeikis @amyremeikis.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
I stand with Randa and everyone standing against hate, genocide, oppression and terror. In all its forms.
Statement from the Australia Institute announcing its withdrawal of support and sponsored events from the Adelaide Writers’ Festival Statement from Amy Remeikis withdrawing from Adelaide Writers’ Festival
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Jewish Council of Australia @jewishcouncilau.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Petition: We will not be divided after Bondi. Add your name: jewishcouncil.good.do/unity/jewish...
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Amy Remeikis @amyremeikis.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Who ever this is serving, it’s not helping anything www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2025...
thenewdaily.com.au
Our hearts are shattered – and some have broken them further
There is no going back to where we were before December 14. But a social contract Australians relied on has been destroyed by the Coalition.
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Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
So, ignore the terrorist group that is very evidently responsible for the attack and go after peaceful protesters who object to genocide? Sounds legit.
theguardian.com
NSW will move to ban phrase ‘globalise the intifada’ in crackdown on ‘hateful’ rhetoric. Here’s what we know so far
NSW parliament will sit next week to consider legislation to limit protests and ban hate speech in response to the Bondi attack, Chris Minns says
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Clare Strahan @9fragments.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Can recommend!
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Luke Horton @lukehorton.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Hello! I'm running a six-week writing workshop in Melbourne over summer designed to help you deepen your craft, receive generous feedback and build momentum in your work. 💫 Small group (max 12 writers) 💫 Fortnightly meet-ups Places are limited. Apps close on Nov 7. App w info in bio.
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Jinghua Qian @jinghuaqian.com · 11/07/2025
Imagine the public outcry and Murdoch media beat-up if Australia allowed the China lobby to define sinophobia then enacted censorship on the PRC's behalf. Yet that's exactly what's happening with Israel and antisemitism.
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Ren Wyld @wyld.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
It's now open to non Indigenous signatories. Awww I love writers and other creative peeps xxxx
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Ren Wyld @wyld.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
below is the brief acceptance speech I was going to give on Tuesday, but instead my Fellowship was rescinded a few hours before the award ceremony:- I acknowledge that I’m speaking on the unceded lands of Turrbal, Yuggera and Jagerra peoples and pay my respect to their Elders, past and present. 1/
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Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Powerful Stella prize speech from Michelle de Kretser: “In Australia today it isn’t those applauding mass murder who have cause to be afraid, but those speaking out against it. Principally targeted are Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, First Nations people, people of colour, queers.”
theage.com.au
‘Serious consequences for Australian democracy’: Author uses prize speech to warn against censorship
Australian author Michelle de Kretser described feeling afraid of speaking publicly about the conflict in Gaza as she accepted the 2025 Stella Prize for her book Theory & Practice.
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Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
The day author Ren Wyld was due to receive the Black & Write $15k Indigenous fellowship she was told it had been rescinded. A journo from the Oz seemed to know before she did. Appalling to see QLD govt cave to Murdoch press to punish a First Nations writer for speaking out in support of Palestine.
Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded, including an email from a journo at The Australian sent 20 minutes before she was told. Social post from Ren Wyld with details of being told her award was rescinded
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Danielle Clode @dclode.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
What a great #essay. For me, the escalating destruction of our #ecosystem is the great horror of our times, notwithstanding our enforced complicity in the current round of crimes against humanity. And as for asking why #reading is essential - it's a bit like asking why thinking is essential. 🤯
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stuart everly-wilson @basicwriter.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
How I admire people who can write like this.
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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
"In spite of all this, at no time over the last 18 mths have I felt that writing fiction was a waste of time". Finally got to @lukehorton.bsky.social's great essay on meaningfully engaging with this world through writing (& reading) overland.org.au/2025/05/book...
overland.org.au
Books are essential - Overland literary journal
Books are essential because — and yes, it seems now I dare to say it — they give us hope. But, more precisely, they give us the energy to seek new and better ways to understand, or to recognise. To se...
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Luke Horton @lukehorton.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
'...while Israelis continue to slaughter Palestinians in their thousands — and we have awoken each morning to new unbelievably horrific scenes that can never be scrubbed from our memories — literally no-one in power is doing anything to stop it. No-one.' All I care about today, as we vote.
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Overland Journal @overlandjournal.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
In response to the prompt of a publisher's campaign, Luke Horton offers an extended reflection on the value of literature and the work of writing (and reading) in the current moment.
overland.org.au
Books are essential - Overland literary journal
Books are essential because — and yes, it seems now I dare to say it — they give us hope. But, more precisely, they give us the energy to seek new and better ways to understand, or to recognise. To se...
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Overland Journal @overlandjournal.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
“In both Gaza and Australia, genocide only happens to white people. The rest are either collateral damage or painted as liars — Windschuttle helped make sure of that.” Sam Ryan on the passing of “one of our worst thinkers.”
overland.org.au
Keith Windschuttle’s rotten legacy - Overland literary journal
Much can and should be written about Windschuttle’s rotten legacy, which exceeds the bounds of his attacks on Aboriginal Australia. Instead of the comprehensive intellectual thrashing he deserves, thi...
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Dion Kagan @dionkagan.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
I reviewed @lukehorton.bsky.social's excellent new novel, Time Together for @meanjin.bsky.social. My response to it can be summarised as 'hard relate'. Thanks @mxcreant.bsky.social
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Luke Horton @lukehorton.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
'I've been longing for an Australian novel like this: one riffling through the feeling of being forty-something in the 2020s—uncertainty and faint regret around careers or relationships, clocking the exodus of youth from the body...' Ty @meanjin.bsky.social and @dionkagan.bsky.social
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Danielle Binks @daniellebinks.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Islamophobia and antisemitism — why they are a shared challenge, not a competition #AusPol www.abc.net.au/religion/der...
abc.net.au
Islamophobia and antisemitism — why they are a shared challenge, not a competition - ABC Religion & Ethics
While there is broad agreement between us that both antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise, Andre Oboler’s recent article highlights a troubling trend: the tendency to debate which form of prej...
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Danielle Binks @daniellebinks.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
The term ‘antisemitism’ is being weaponised and stripped of meaning – and that’s incredibly dangerous www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The term ‘antisemitism’ has been weaponised and stripped of meaning – and that’s incredibly dangerous | Rachel Shabi
Israel uses it to silence critics of its Gaza war while the right uses it to attack opponents. Meanwhile, the issue itself goes unaddressed, says author Rachel Shabi
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
When I described Israelis hunting Palestinian children for sport I was not exaggerating or being purposefully outrageous. It is literally what the IDF is doing in Gaza. They are actually, literally, shooting civilians for fun. www.instagram.com/p/DDxdPV1v1BN
We're killing civilians there who are then counted as terrorists.
The Israeli army spokesperson's announcements about casualty numbers have turned this into a competition between units. If Division 99 kills 150 people, the next unit aims for 200.
Recently discharged Division 252 officer
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Luke Horton @lukehorton.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
'Writers – and everyone else – must take sides, irrespective of the sensitivities they offend. We have no choice. Gaza is not safe, and neither is the world that allows Gaza to happen.' Great piece by @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social
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Luke Horton @lukehorton.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Beautiful new writing from @jenniferdown.bsky.social 💙
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