As the systematic biases are stripped away from prize-giving and the reviewing of Australian authors, I do expect we will see more authors from wider and richer backgrounds represented on shortlists for these prizes. And it makes my heart swell, even though it means such a strong competition. These literary awards are the one place in the literary world where year after year, success is a zero-sum game. It strengthens the entire community when the voices of the disenfranchised and the overlooked are represented alongside those who have enjoyed the lion’s share of awards and accolades for so long.

At the exhibition opening, Aboriginal activist Robbie Thorpe gave a speech addressing those seeking asylum in Australia. To reaffirm Indigenous sovereignty and offer welcome, Thorpe held up an Indigenous colour-themed Aboriginal Passport to Country. What is perhaps most remarkable about the exhibition is the sense of cultural continuity that has developed between the artists through their collaborative works.

Earlier this month an event in Fitzroy called ‘Pussy Power’ – an all-female DJ line-up – was boycotted by activists who claimed such an event title actively excluded transgender-identified people even though the by-line read ‘gay straight transgender friendly party.’ The event name itself was bold but not overly remarkable considering it was drawing attention to the ‘all femme DJ line-up.’

It’s 22 January, and the first gathering of the Still Waters Black Womens Storytelling Network. The group founder, Zimbabwean writer Fadzai Jaravaza, pauses, takes a breath, looks around at the group of beautiful brown women gathered for tea in a small room at the Institute for Postcolonial Studies in North Melbourne and asks ‘Any questions?’ […]

When I was about ten years old there was a television ad that featured a woman in a fur coat and beret rushing through the streets of Paris to meet her lover for an instant coffee. She wore fabulous red lipstick and the soundtrack was Piaf. After one viewing Punky Brewster was knocked off her […]

My father’s tools Tom Petsinis Arcadia The relationship between father and son is explored in Tom Petsinis’s sixth poetry collection My father’s tools, published by Arcadia. The poetry, accompanied by the artwork of Jim Pavlidis, is series of poems, each named after a tool in Petsinis’s deceased father’s toolbox. Although each short poem can be […]

In the absence of security, I made my way into the night, with 40 000 others, to Edihad Stadium for the George Michael concert. Nostalgia lingered in the warm Melbourne night. My reasons for wanting to see George Michael went beyond his exceptional voice – it was also to reconnect with memories of dress ups […]