Cirrus@Austlit

'Griffith Review 85: Status Anxiety grapples with the fallout of our status anxiety and explores what happens when we don’t measure up. 

'Like the answer to a riddle, status is all around us, but it can’t always be seen or heard. The silent switchboard behind our professional and personal interactions, status dictates our place on the guest list, in the room, at the table; through its connections to class, race and gender, it affords some of us power and wealth and others empty promises.  

'But why does status so often go unnoticed? How does it influence everything from social inequality to personal relationships? And what changing forces have come to bear on the high or low status we’ve ascribed ourselves and others over the centuries?'  (Publication summary)

'The attachments we form shape our experience of the world and our understanding of who we are. ‘Hell is other people,’ wrote Jean-Paul Sartre, his point being less about misanthropy and more about how entwined our self-perception is with the ways in which others perceive us. And alongside our personal relationships – from filial to friendship, from collegiate to romantic – sit the complex emotional connections we form with places, ideas and objects. How do we navigate these varying attachments, and what can they offer us when our lives are so mediated by technology? Can we break free of the tropes and traps associated with our most primal relationships: the social expectations of motherhood, the burdens of filial duty, the complexities of infidelity?' (Publication summary)

'The past, famously, is a foreign country – but in the twenty-first century, it’s one in which we increasingly seek solace. What fuels this love affair with recycling our history? What periods do we choose to romanticise, and how do our rose-tinted glasses occlude reality? Is all this nostalgia signifying – as the late Mark Fisher opined – the disappearance of the future? 

'In this edition, we explore the connection between loneliness, nostalgia and Big Tech and the ways nostalgia has been weaponised for political gain. 

'We revisit the heyday of advertising in the ’90s and investigate two long-standing editorial myths: have editors got worse? Do they infringe too much on the work of authors? 

'We talk with Melissa Lukashenko about the important role of historical fiction in recovering First Nations knowledges, experiences and stories, and learn from Witi Ihimaera about the ingenuity, mischief and gift for reinvention at the heart of Indigenous storytelling. 

'Griffith Review 83: Past Perfect surveys our need to idealise, sensationalise and glamorise – and asks what the circular nature of our obsessions says about our present cultural moment.' (Publication summary) 

'Whether it’s man’s best friend or the king of the jungle, animals occupy a central place in our social, emotional and cultural lives. 

'With pieces from Chris Flynn, Geraldine Brooks, Laura Jean McKay and many more, this edition of Griffith Review visits habitats near and far, wild and domestic.

'We visit the site of T-rex excavations, swim with turtles, spend a night at the zoo, find out about the storied history of mould, and diagnose pre-teen horse girls.

'We consider the lobster – and dodos, cockatoos, elephants, tigers and more. There’s even a lone – very loved – soft-toy rabbit tucked away in our pages.

'The cat’s out of the bag: Griffith Review 82: Animal Magic will bring the wonder of the animal world into your hands.' (Publication summary)

'In 1930, John Maynard Keynes spelt out a vision of the impending utopia. Work, he said, will become a thing of the past. ‘For the first time since creation,’ he predicted, ‘man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem – how to occupy the leisure which science…will have won for him.’ 

'So where did this vision of future past go? Like baco-foil suits and meals of protein pills, it proved to be a concept that withered on the vine. Instead of an excess of free time to be enjoyed at leisure, a radically different regime now dominates the developed nations: the leisure principle. 

'The leisure principle is one of work hard to play hard, a rigorous pursuit of monetarised hedonism: YOLO, live your best life, have a good time all the time. 

'From the ecstasy of the digital to the monied spectacle that is sport, the gamification of everyday life to the flourishing hierarchy of influencers, Griffith Review 81: The Leisure Principle sets out to scrutinise the terms and conditions of this contemporary compact and consider how we came to cede so much just to amuse ourselves to death.' (Publication summary)

'The capacity to tell stories – along with language and the ability to create art – is seen as both intrinsic and unique to the human species. Over thousands of years, we’ve forged narratives of our origins, our journeys and our dreams as a means of accounting for who we are and to define our place in the world. 

'In the twenty-first century, as our existential and environmental crises mount, humanity’s place feels distinctly tenuous. What lessons from the past can inform, even shape, our increasingly uncertain future? And are the stories we’re telling ourselves about what comes next – environmental downfall or technological salvation – helping or hindering what we might do and where we might go? 

'In celebration of Griffith Review’s eightieth edition and twentieth anniversary, Creation Stories looks to the stars above and the earth below to map our ever-evolving relationships with the world around us. From archaeology and astronomy to AI and transhumanism, the preservation of traditional knowledge to the intricacies of postmodern identity, this edition travels through time and space to explore the many tales of who we are and where we might be headed.'  (Publication summary)

'Edited by Carody Culver, Griffith Review 79 questions how we discern what’s real and what’s not in a time of influencers and identity scams, counterfeits and cosmetic surgeries, disinformation, fake news and threats to democracy.

'From the imitation game and the uncanny valley to con artistry, trickery and sleights of hand, artifice makes the world go round – but is everything as it seems? And does it matter? Or should we all sit back, relax and embrace the ecstasy of the unreal?'(Publication summary)

'Antarctica is both a physical locality and an imaginary possibility – as a pivot around which the world turns, it has proven historically to be a space where human ideas of exploration, investigation and fantasy have played out. 

'Yet it is the only continent on Earth that is truly free of government – a place where an international treaty from sixty years ago holds firm. National governments stake claims in the understanding that they will never be enforced, either conceptually or militarily. 

'But this vast, dry continent is a litmus test for change – a canary in the coal mine of climate crisis. It is a deceptively rich eco-system that negotiates extremes every day, yet the signals it is sending are increasingly ones of distress: ice melt, glacial erosion and a profound change in the character and distribution of its sparse and precious flora.

'From climate science, glaciology and marine biology to geopolitics, international law and more, this collection, produced in association with the Australian Antarctic Division, foregrounds subjects and stories from the planet’s deepest south. ' (Publication summary)

'Four years on from the Uluru Statement from the Heart, there’s a clear divide between the groundswell of popular support to recognise the rightful place of First Nations people in Australia’s democratic life and ongoing political inertia in the same space. Tensions remain between long denials and new possibilities: is Australia ready to heal its brutal legacy of settler colonialism? How can we begin to imagine a better future without a full recognition of the past and a full recognition of the moral force of First Nations? And how can this examination and exchange – or reckoning in any context – take place in an era of quick assumptions and divides, alternative facts and cancellations?

'Griffith Review 76: Acts of Reckoning is a wide-ranging discussion of the multifaceted issues at play in Australia’s fraught journey towards a full settlement with Indigenous peoples. Can its leaders take up the generous offer from Australia’s Aboriginal nations to walk together to forge change through dialogue? What might be possible for Australia’s narrative when reconciliation between the world’s oldest continuing culture and one of its newest nation states is achieved? What actions are necessary to move beyond words and achieve real-world transformations – in indigenous-settler relations as in other crucial arenas of recalibration?

'Examining questions of history, truth-telling and decolonisation, and revisiting colonial figures and their ongoing legacies, Acts of Reckoning reframes the past in order to form new futures – and celebrates how much work is already underway.

'Contributing Editor Teela Reid joins Editor Ashley Hay as Griffith Review 76: Acts of Reckoning opens a dialogue for diverse voices, opportunities and perspectives to be articulated, examined and assessed. (Editorial)

'IN 1816. DAVID Brewster. a Scottish mathematician and physicist, invented a new kind of optical device. A narrow tube. fragments of coloured glass gathered loosely at oen end were rearranged as the tube turned, refracting a series of recombining mandalas  for the viewer (at the other end) thanks to mirrors set inside. A slight turn and a whole new vista appeared - impossible to predict, to enumerate. to return to. Brewster called it a kaleidoscope, a 'philosophical Instrument* that changes what was possible to 'see' and how.' (Ashley Hey : Introduction)

'Sometimes, we all need to get away...

'From mermaids and space matriarchs to fresh starts and flights of fancy, Escape Routes explores what it means to break out and break free.

'Featuring new work from Behrouz Boochani, Kim Scott, Peggy Frew, Natalie Kon-yu, David Ritter and Alice Gorman, plus the four winners of Griffith Review's inaugural Emerging Voices competition Declan Fry, Alison Gibbs, Vijay Khurana and Andrew Roff, Griffith Review 74: Escape Routes takes us across borders to places once out of reach, heading over the horizon to access other worlds.' (Publication summary)

'There’s no place like utopia.

'What are the possibilities and pitfalls of imagining a better future? Hey, Utopia! explores the ramifications of Thomas More's term in a range of contexts: the possible and the improbable, the out of reach and almost realised.

'Edited by Ashley Hay and featuring work by Sarah Sentilles, Thurston Moore & John Kinsella, Ellen van Neervan, Alex Cothren, Fiona Foley and Lea McInerney, Griffith Review 73 looks into visions past and present, those with potential and those that proved punishing.' (Publication summary)

'IN THE FIRST months of 2020, the vibrations of the Earth changed. As monitored by a global network of seismologists, the average daily displacement of the surface of the planet – measured in nanometres, or increments of one billionth of a metre – fell around the world, from Nepal to Barcelona to Brussels. In Enshi, in China’s Hubei province, and in New York City, average ground displacement fell to less than one nanometre from pre-pandemic levels of 3.25 nm and 1.75 nm respectively'. (Ashley Hay : Introduction) 

'As the world teeters between old and new ways of doing, can we remake the balance between what we need and what we nurture? Can we forge a new equilibrium to sustain us into the twenty-first century?

'Having challenged so much – social practices and social structures, habits of mind and habits of leisure – will the pandemic leave a lasting legacy on how we shape the world? Griffith Review 71: Remaking the Balance examines how our natural, economic and cultural systems might be refashioned post-pandemic: will it be a return to business as usual, or can we reinvent our relationship with all that is animal, vegetable and mineral to create a more sustainable future?

'Edited by Ashley Hay, Remaking the Balance looks at how we can do more with what we have, and features leading writers and thinkers, including Gabrielle Chan, Clare Wright, Matthew Evans, Sophie Cunningham, Inga Simpson, John Kinsella,  Declan Fry, plus and exclusive Q&A with Barbara Kingsolver.' (Publication summary)

'Griffith Review‘s annual showcase of the best of Australian new writing presents stories of inner lives, resilience and potential realised.

'It features the four winners of our annual novella competition – Rhianna Boyle, Claire G Coleman, Mikele Prestia and Kate Veitch – as well as exciting new work from Thomas Major, Kristina Olsson, Adam Thompson, Linda Neil and Allanah Hunt. There’s new poetry from a compelling range of vital Australian voices, and the first in an ongoing series of pieces that will feature online over December and January, The Elemental Summer, from award-winning climate scientist Joëlle Gergis.' (Publication summary)

'As Europe is thrown into sharp relief by a devastating pandemic, Griffith Review 69: The European Exchange explores the deep and complex relationships between Europe and Australia, and discusses how Australians of many backgrounds have contributed to a longstanding dialogue that enriches both continents.' (Publication summary)

'From our first experiences to our last, institutions structure our world – through education and medicine to politics, justice, civics and religion. But in recent years even the most entrenched of institutions are seemingly on the edge of implosion. Either through deliberate political attacks or as an effect of wider disruption, new social forces have issued a comprehensive challenge to the established order.

'Does this new uncertainty mark a profound loss of trust in how our society is organised and how it operates? Might this be an opportunity for thoroughgoing reform to regain lost legitimacy, or does it mark an end-point for a social structure that is no longer tenable in the twenty-first century? Can institutions adapt? Can trust be rebuilt? Or will new forms of social organisation eventuate from this gathering sense of crisis?' (Editorial)

'Griffith Review presents its annual showcase of the country's leading writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The Light Ascending features new work from Holly Ringland, Julienne van Loon, Mirandi Riwoe, Allanah Hunt, Krissy Kneen and Pat Hoffie, as well as inspiring new work from Australia's leading poets.

'The residents of a seaside town find their dreams perturbed after a young woman serves them candies at the local market; an Aboriginal family is forced to deal with the consequences of the death of a loved one in custody; the model for a celebrated canvas by Paul Gauguin reveals the harsh undertone of exploitation behind the artist's work; a woman experiencing a post-accident coma ebbs back and forth through the currents of her life.

'Edited by Ashley Hay, Griffith Review 66: The Light Ascending – The Novella Project VII presents new work that challenges, celebrates, questions and critiques.'