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'After briefly introducing Palm Island and its history as a place of punishment for Indigenous people, this essay looks at how readers respond to three books about Palm: Thea Astley’s The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow (1996), Chloe Hooper’s The Tall Man (2008), and Cathy McLennan’s Saltwater (2016). Using reviews posted by contributors to Goodreads, I investigate the colocation of terms which recur in positive reviews, in search of a specific form of reading, described here as “absorption.” Against the publishing and broader cultural conventions which differentiate fiction from non-fiction, the evidence shows that readers who describe themselves as having become absorbed tend also to praise these books for their truth, regardless of genre. The essay proposes some points of reference for thinking about the reading experience, and concludes by briefly noting the limits of using of genre in marketing, reviewing, and studying books. The essay is built on an awareness of the radical imbalance in the distribution of literacy in the region these books depict.' (Publication abstract)

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y Etropic vol. 16 no. 2 2017 13424937 2017 periodical issue Abstract
'On the 20th of January this year, the American people ushered in a serial misogynist as President of the so-called free world. A known womaniser,an alleged rapist with a long list of women accusing him of sexual harassment and a public record consisting of a tirade of derogatory remarks about women,Trump’s sexism is incontestable. Further, his various positions and policies—from the Mexican wall and the Muslim travel-ban,to his stand against undocumented immigrants and his commitment to repeal Obamacare, among many others—stand to adversely affect society’s most vulnerable. As we watched that election take shape from across the Pacific we felt as if we were powerless bystanders witnessing a fateful and horrific collision unfold as a nightmarish slow-motion spectacle. The implication was clear: hard-won gains for women worldwide risked slipping backward, precipitously.' (Victoria Kuttainen, Ariella Van Luyn : Editor's introduction)
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