It is 2004, going on to 2005. I’m thinking about ‘identity’, and thinking about the person who in 2000 wrote: To me, sexuality has been so important for my journey to enlightenment. That’s not to assume that enlightenment is an end thing, it’s a continual process. It’s a continual reassertion of the self, or reawakening […]

James Frey says: fictional characters – homo fictus – are not identical to flesh-and-blood human beings – homo sapiens. One reason for this is that readers wish to read about the exceptional rather than the mundane. Readers demand that homo fictus be more handsome or ugly, ruthless or noble, vengeful or giving, brave or cowardly, […]

An Abbottonian prophecy – courtesy of The Onion. (There is, unfortunately, a 15 second advert for Zombieland first.)

According to a post on the SPUNC blog last week, independent Australian publishing does. Laurie Steed wrote that there aren’t enough women submitting to journals and publishers in Australia: Of the 200 submissions received by Affirm Press, around 80 percent have been from male writers. This year also sees the release of the next Sleepers […]

Kerryn Goldsworthy makes an interesting observation about the role of gender in the recent Quadrant hoaxing kerfuffle.  The representation of women in literary journals, and how to increase the number of women writing for the magazine, especially writing on politics, has been a subject we’ve returned to year-in, year-out. Women are over-represented in creative writing […]