'This paper investigates generative AI (GnAI) as an editorial mediatory for literary fiction. Applying a digital hermeneutics methodology, our experiment tests ChatGPT-3.5’s editing capabilities by comparing its work on a short story to the work of three professional human editors – two working in-house for esteemed Australian literary journals and one freelance, judging for an annual anthology. This case addresses a gap in our knowledge of how large-language-model (LLM) technologies may improve – or assist in improving – literary fiction works, in line with industry-standard editorial conventions, and increase the efficiency and productivity of editorial intervention. The outcomes suggest GnAI cannot yet compare or compete with human ‘editorial intelligence’ – the result of experience and expertise; intuition, iteration, reflection; and, most importantly, author–editor conversations – in the literary sector. We assert that human management is optimal for literary fiction manuscript development, but surmise that GnAI could have potential application in genre fiction – in conjunction with human oversight (to direct the technology). Future iterations of GnAI will likely have fewer limitations. ChatGPT can, however, enable efficiencies for clearly identified works – those with recognisable tropes and formulaic structures – and has potential to support editors and enhance author engagement with reading audiences.' (Publication abstract)
'In recent years non-Indigenous writers have grappled with inclusion and representation of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples in creative works. Historically, and at times in contemporary fiction, writers have misrepresented, marginalised, or omitted Indigenous people as characters. Writers who craft regional and rural settings perhaps bear a greater onus than their metropolitan peers to characterise Indigenous people due to an expectation of a greater extent of unbroken Indigenous connections to ‘Country’ beyond the dense infrastructure of cityscapes. With the rise of First Nations authorship and authority, non-Indigenous writers are often advised to either avoid writing Indigenous characters or to get to know traditional owners and refine their writing skills to achieve authenticity. In this article, I offer my experience as a non-Indigenous writer crafting a farm novel that situates Aboriginal characters at the centre of the farm and the narrative. My writing process required constant awareness of a cultural interface and an approach that I hoped would recognise yet not impinge on Indigenous knowledge, beliefs, and authorship. My experience led to the development of a set of guidelines that may be useful to other writers crafting Australian settings.' (Publication abstract)
'This paper explores scientific research on meditation and creativity within the context of the creative writing classroom, arguing that meditation can be a useful tool for students developing a creative practice. While many teachers may use mindfulness and meditation strategies in the classroom, particularly in the United States, there is little scholarship that addresses the scientific data with a view to how it may assist creative writing and how it might benefit students at different stages of the writing process. For instance, research supports the hypothesis that mindfulness meditation increases divergent thinking and concentrative meditation increases convergent thinking – both styles being critical to the writing process at different times – and this has ramifications for how we might support student writing. This essay draws together relevant scientific work, flagging its relevance to the discipline and how it is used in ‘Creative Writing Major Project’ a third-year capstone subject at the University of Wollongong, Australia.' (Publication abstract)
'Plagiarism in poetry is negotiated and understood via a series of tacitly agreed-upon techniques, which allow space for artistic practices of allusion and intertextuality, but also opens up increasingly complex concerns when poets fail to abide by these unspoken conventions. The techniques poets adopt to acknowledge or conceal their sources are wide-ranging but frequently under-represented in debates and scholarship about plagiarism, which more frequently focus on the moral and ethical arguments for and against using another's work. In this paper, we will argue that disclosure and documentation-through epigraphs, notes and other means of acknowledgement-are central to the so-called ‘cento defence’, allowing the poet to present the work of others as their own, whereas alterations, especially minor substitutions, and the absence of disclosure, are central to current conceptions of plagiarism. In doing so, we seek to define and make explicit the tacit conventions in contemporary literary practice relating to theft from the perspective of the poet-practitioner.' (Publication abstract)
