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Save Meanjin

@savemeanjin.bsky.social
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The closure of Meanjin has triggered outrage across Australia’s literary and academic communities. The solution is straightforward — transfer the journal to new custodians who can ensure its future. More at savemeanjin.org

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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Have you checked out Splinter? Farrin Foster doing amazing things there... splinterjournal.com
splinterjournal.com
Splinter Journal
Splinter is a literary journal that is sharp and hard to ignore.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
"It took more than an hour after the story broke, and was covered by several mastheads, to receive official notice from MUP; a group email confirming Meanjin’s immediate closure." ~Emma Sutherland, Archives Editor at Meanjin in @artshub.bsky.social this weekend. www.artshub.com.au/news/opinion...
artshub.com.au
I was the Archives Editor at Meanjin – its closure is baffling
As Archives Editor, Emma Sutherland had ‘read everything’ in Meanjin's past, but was unprepared for its troubled present.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
Hey @fableration.bsky.social - we love to see it. We're in touch with several groups having similar conversations and would love to chat! Can you please reach out at hello@savemeanjin.org so we can organise a discussion?
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
Hey @simonharding.bsky.social can you share your email at hello@savemeanjin.org so we can chat - we've got several groups we're in touch with
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
The silencing continues... The National Press Club of Australia, caving to the Israel lobby, Cancels My Talk on Our Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists open.substack.com/pub/chrished...
open.substack.com
The National Press Club of Australia, caving to the Israeli lobby, Cancels My Talk on Our Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists
The National Press Club of Australia cancelled my talk on how the media, by amplifying Israeli lies, have betrayed Palestinian journalists, 278 of whom have been assassinated by Israel.
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Lucy Hamilton @lucyham.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
In 2024, Meanjin published this essay by my father & myself on Australia’s democracy crisis as displayed through the Voice referendum symptoms. Now that this 85yo Aus cultural institution is being destroyed by neolib visigoths at Melbourne Uni, you should have it from behind paywall. #auspol
The Year in Truth-Telling

The Voice and Australia's democracy crisis

dire state of truth in Australia's civic space crystalised in 2023. We had seen the waning influence of News Corp's impact on our elections and assumed it meant that enough of us were becoming inoculated against the propaganda.
The defeat of the notoriously mendacious Coalition government might have signalled a ceasefire, a moment for the 'conservative' parties to rediscover their integrity. We had underestimated, however, the strategising of vested interests. The year also revealed starkly what happens when the world's instant communication platform, X (formerly Twitter), is owned by one malevolent billionaire. All these forces converged in a grim battle over the Voice to Parliament referendum.
The overwhelming rejection of Scott Morrison's Coalition government in 2022 had been in large part an indictment of its lack of transparency and integrity.
Revelation had followed revelation about the brazen pork-barrelling undertaken with the help of colour-coded spreadsheets kept in a ministerial office. The flood of deception, echoing Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, was such that Bernard Keane assembled a whole book on it.? Solid gold Liberal seats were lost to community independents known as the 'teals' who were focused on climate action and integrity.
Anthony Albanese's government was sworn in with…
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Mez of Gryffsville @mezofgryffsville.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Making an effort to read the Australian literary mags that I subscribe to (which had included #Meanjin) - rewarded by reading "Extinctions" by @dani-netherclift.bsky.social on @islandmag.bsky.social islandmag.com/read/extinct...
islandmag.com
Extinctions – by Dani Netherclift | Australian Literary Arts Magazine | ISLAND
The threat AI poses to writers and the art of writing seems to have arisen swiftly. Who threw open those doors? What is an entry? A door is an aperture to possibility. These are important concerns for...
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Lucy Hamilton @lucyham.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Re Andrew Hastie Since the creeps at Melbourne University are shutting down Meanjin, I am bringing my essay out from the paywall. It’s on how “Christian” is being used to bring together a ratty coalition against “woke” , here at ARC, Hastie on that Board. #auspol www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/l6oxr...
Mind-numbing sleep-woking
The word 'woke' is tiresome. More though, it's a cliché that terminates our ability to debate. In Australian civic discourse, and internationally, the word is used to demarcate lines of battle. In 2025, Australian politicians are hoping it can turn a motley coalition of voters into the government's base.
Lucy Hamilton
Lucy Hamilton is a doctoral student at UTS and a writer who focuses on the impact of the international Right on Australian politics and society. This research is supported by an Australian
Government Research
Training Program
Scholarship. She works on Woi-wurrung and Wurundjeri lands.
Woke emerged as a concept in US Black culture in the 1920s to signal people who were aware of how the system trapped them in disadvantage. Later, progressives borrowed (stole?) the label to celebrate that awareness more broadly, with regard to varied subjects like human rights for minorities, women, workers and refugees. By 2020, the term had become established as the right's latest slur for the 'politically correct.

See linked essay for more…
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Tiny Owl Workshop @tinyowlworkshop.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
This is an excellent and frustrating piece on US publishing, which also speaks to the recent shuttering of #meanjin in Aus.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
🙌 @lucyham.bsky.social
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mayiparttula.bsky.social @mayiparttula.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
What is the value of Meanjin? We’ve done some calculations – and it’s not about money theconversation.com/what-is-the-...
theconversation.com
What is the value of Meanjin? We’ve done some calculations – and it’s not about money
New research considers the true value of Meanjin, using publicly available data. The journal has trained generations of Australian writers and editors.
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Esther Anatolitis @anatolitis.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
and not a class hierarchy permanently fixed time; in a democracy, we decide. My next book—out Wednesday—speaks to the need for renewed democracy movements that question privilege and power. Seems quite timely today in light of the prime minister's remarks: estheranatolitis.net/2025/05/28/w...
estheranatolitis.net
When Australia Became a Republic: out 1 October 2025
Monash University Press: In the National Interest seriesPublished October 2025 Australia became a republic many years ago—culturally, if not yet constitutionally. We’ve long stopped identifyin…
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Esther Anatolitis @anatolitis.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
recognising that tax incentives and disincentives communicate their own ethical and cultural messages as well as financial ones. Who we privilege financially in a democracy says everything about the people we are today, and the Australia we want to become. Who we privilege is a choice that we make,
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Esther Anatolitis @anatolitis.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
and that work has never seemed more crucial. Now more than ever, it requires all of us—and demands our very best. Last week's Art of Tax Reform Summit (stay with me on this!) was a valuable first: govts are thinking well beyond subsidy, embedding the arts across policy and into treasury operations,
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Esther Anatolitis @anatolitis.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
Art, tenacity, democracy. The ways we create and experience new work, sustain the courage of our convictions, and make important decisions together: they're all intertwined. I've devoted my career to the ethics of creative and civic practice, working to expand public spaces and champion new voices,
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Great idea…
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Andy Tseng @andytseng.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
No, it doesn’t add up! #UniMelb should and can do better! #Meanjin #MUP #Australia #Publishing #CultureMatters #AcademicSky #ResearchSky
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Michael West @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
"Universities .. increasingly behave like real estate trusts and investment funds" say academics #saveausunis #meanjin #ANU michaelwest.com.au/uni-finances...
michaelwest.com.au
Uni finances. ANU and the commercialisation of higher ed - Michael West
Australian universities are more focused on financial performance and investments rather than their primary function of higher education.
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Libby Robin @libbydeq.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Just like #Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social MU can afford Meanjin. It is not about the money. It is another attack on the arts. Accountants do the bottom line. VCs do the choices.
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Patrick Allington @patrickallington.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
The report that Melbourne University Publishing will stop publishing the lit mag #Meanjin is bad news for readers, writers, thinkers, dreamers, doers, publishers, and policymakers - and for citizens who have never heard of or read Meanjin. #Auslit #litmags www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...
crikey.com.au
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.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
"The situation has created quite a stir as the official story about the magazine’s closure doesn’t seem to add up." @beckyltuch.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/litmagne...
open.substack.com
On That Midnight Train to Lit Mags!
Meanjin closing & controversy; CIA's lit mag legacy; defining "literary fiction;" advice for submitting; $10,000 essay award; AWP's George Garrett Award; and more
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Have you given this interview a listen yet? @nickfeik.bsky.social research on @meanjin.bsky.social has been amazing and he summarises what he's learned here with @skykirkham.bsky.social
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
We’ll never agree with any White Australia position; past or present. The team here aren't connected to Overland but will read that essay closely and reach out if it fits. In the meantime, esp given their coverage of Eli's essay, they're likely open to hearing from you too! Thank you for sharing it
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Thanks @noticingclimate.bsky.social ! We'd love to say it's lovely to be here, but, well... you know.
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Jane Doe @noticingclimate.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Sherlock, no shit: "But it’s worth reiterating that entrusting a literary journal — especially one such as Meanjin with a long-standing record of political integrity and radicalism, —to the custodianship of an institution like the University of Melbourne was bound not to last."
overland.org.au
“No Guernicas, no sacred places”: On the closure of Meanjin - Overland literary journal
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 ...
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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Small circulation periodicals like Meanjin Important to keep alive with small subsidy just like small community orchestras.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Be sure to check out this interview with @nickfeik.bsky.social and @skykirkham.bsky.social They explore Nick's deep research and more to explore what's really going on behind @mupublishing.bsky.social 's decision to close @meanjin.bsky.social
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Tim Coronel @timcoronel.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
m'learned colleagues have more sensible things to say about #Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social theconversation.com/what-is-the-...
theconversation.com
What is the value of Meanjin? We’ve done some calcuations – and it’s not about money
New research considers the true value of Meanjin, using publicly available data. The journal has trained generations of Australian writers and editors.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
What is the value of Meanjin? We’ve done some calculations – and it’s not about money theconversation.com/what-is-the-...
theconversation.com
What is the value of Meanjin? We’ve done some calcuations – and it’s not about money
New research considers the true value of Meanjin, using publicly available data. The journal has trained generations of Australian writers and editors.
062
Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Come on now, we all know the only way to make the best Honmoon is to choose not to use the take down!
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Come on now, we all know the only way to make the best Honmoon is to choose not to use the take down!
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
When do all of us *not* need those exhausted, beautiful, critically thinking, curious minds from the political sciences... what was that first hypothesis in the propaganda model that Herman and Chomsky had back in the 80's? 🤔
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
David Lewis in @newpolitics.bsky.social : "Its closure is as un-Australian as rioting on a beach to drive out those you dislike. We must not accept this." Meanjin: A legacy and a lamentable closure open.substack.com/pub/newpolit...
open.substack.com
Meanjin: A legacy and a lamentable closure
The demise of Meanjin is more than the end of a publication; it is a blow to Australia’s intellectual and cultural fabric.
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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Late to this from @greenj.bsky.social , but: exactly... "What a shitty waste, and what a tragic confirmation of the Meanjin project’s occasional subtext: that culturally we are inclined to cringe." greenworlds.substack.com/p/the-death-...
greenworlds.substack.com
The Death of Meanjin
Price of everything, value of nothing dept.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
We're aware of at least four different offers being put to MUP. Someone may need to call the math department.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
"and, finally, the rumours about certain pro-Palestine articles having played a role, suggests to me that the closure of Meanjin is a morbid symptom of the conservative elite controlling the dissemination of culture.” 2/2 honisoit.com/2025/09/seco...
honisoit.com
Second oldest Australian literary journal Meanjin to shut down after 85 years of operation - Honi Soit
Meanjin, Australia’s second oldest literary journal, will close down after running for 85 consecutive years.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
Toby Fitch: “MUP’s gagging of Meanjin‘s editor, their failure to pursue all the various ways a literary journal raises money, their refusal to release the journal’s copyright to new backers who have come forward..." 1/2 honisoit.com/2025/09/seco...
honisoit.com
Second oldest Australian literary journal Meanjin to shut down after 85 years of operation - Honi Soit
Meanjin, Australia’s second oldest literary journal, will close down after running for 85 consecutive years.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
Meanjin’s former poetry editor Jeanine Leane: “cancellations of artists and fellowships — not just at Meanjin — [has been] intended to curtail social discourse”, and the forces allied against free speech were trying to “edit the national conscience”. www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/16/m...
crikey.com.au
Who killed Meanjin?
And why won’t Melbourne University Publishing engage with efforts to save it?
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
You can read up and take action at htttps://savemeanjin.org as well @delraycross.bsky.social
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Jo @jo8may.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
Here we go again. Universities once beacons of light, embracing the dark arts of erasure. Eco rats from the political right want to destroy anything that isn’t cruel. This is a cruel and spiteful decision. Who killed Meanjin?  www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/16/m...
crikey.com.au
Who killed Meanjin?
And why won’t Melbourne University Publishing engage with efforts to save it?
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
We hope not!
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Purely. Financial. Grounds. Yup.
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
No comment and all class @anatolitis.bsky.social
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Ann Louise Deslandes @anndlandes.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
See also: @savemeanjin.bsky.social
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Add this to the "worst reason to have to push a deadline ever" list.
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Overland Journal @overlandjournal.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
“If we’ve learned anything from the recent slew of Zionist attacks on culture in Australia, it’s that institutions — mainly universities — are often a poisoned chalice for writers and editors.” Deputy editor Eli McLean on the closure of MEANJIN.
overland.org.au
“No Guernicas, no sacred places”: On the closure of Meanjin - Overland literary journal
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 ...
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Miriam Cosic @miriamcosic.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
'New revelations cast doubt on the official explanations for its closure' Who killed Meanjin? - by ⁦‪Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social #Meanjin nickfeik.substack.com/p/who-killed...
nickfeik.substack.com
Who killed Meanjin?
New revelations cast doubt on the official explanations for its closure
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Antoinette Lattouf @antoinettelattouf.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
The math ain't mathing. We can reveal worrying details about the closure of Meanjin - one of Australia's longest running literary journals. It starts with G ... Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/w...
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Save Meanjin @savemeanjin.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Wow. What an essay by Eli McLean for @overlandjournal.bsky.social : "I had started to feel over the last few months that the ever-watchful eye of the university panopticon was sooner or later going to cast its gaze on our publishing activities"
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