A column canvassing current literary news including a report on Philip McLaren's grievances with the Byron Bay Writers' Festival. In a letter to the Federal Arts Minister, Peter Garrett, and the New South Wales Premier, Nathan Rees, McLaren asserts that the writers' festival has been practicing 'racism by omission' in not inviting Indigenous writers to participate. Jason Steger notes the organisers' counter-claims as put by festival director Jeni Caffin.