Belinda Burns

Dr Belinda Burns is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, where she teaches creative writing and literary studies. Her first novel, The Dark Part of Me, was published by HarperCollins and Grove Atlantic. Her current research focuses on twenty-first century Australian women’s writing, predominantly fictional narratives set in domestic spaces.

Articles by Belinda Burns:

19 August 201628 September 2016 · Writing

Not all bushy testicles and war

Belinda Burns

But I’d argue that literary sexism (in subject, setting, and theme) maintains a particularly tenacious grip here because of our exceedingly masculinised history, as identified by Marilyn Lake, and its connection to nation-building – a tradition forged in polar opposition to Britain and its feminine associations, including, of course, its rich literary heritage of women writers. And yet, despite the seemingly intractable bias our ‘macho’ history exerts on questions of literary merit, I hope I am not being too optimistic in reading a heartening shift in recently shortlisted books by women.