Meanjin Vol 69 Number 1

THE MARCH EDITION OF MEANJIN LOOKS AT CHARISMA: OF RELIGION, OF SCIENCE, OF TEACHERS.

We also launch Meanland, an exciting new collaboration with Overland (www.meanland.com.au) with an article by McKenzie Wark on copygift and why information needs to be freed.

John Potts considers how religious impulses are still mirrored in our secular beliefs and Jeff Sparrow questions where New Atheism will lead us. Phil Brown remembers being taught by one of the greats, the poet Bruce Dawe, Jane Grant explores the cult of the brilliant academic and writer, Sam Goldberg, and in the first of our Rewind series we publish Goldberg’s 1957 Meanjin essay ‘The Poet as Hero: A.D. Hope’s “The Wandering Islands”’. Paul Mitchell examines the presence of God in Australian literature from Tim Winton’s Breath to Tsiolkas’s Dead Europe, Helen Barnes-Bulley asks if atheists can truly enjoy religious art and Carol Major looks at the ways in which the church has informed our adoption practices.

In other essays, Lorin Clarke takes the pulse of contemporary Australian theatre and David Astle helps us celebrate Meanjin’s 70th birthday with a cryptic crossword. Eleanor Whitworth discovers both natural and scientific wonder on a trip to the Arctic, Toni Tapp Coutts recalls living through the wet in the Northern Territory, Maurilia Meehan tells us what it’s like to be a flying school dropout, Stella Glorie describes growing up in a strict Catholic family, Terin Tash Miller remembers meeting the Dalai Lama and Sophie Cunningham speaks to Steven Amsterdam about survival.

In fiction, Fiona McGregor watches as bitterness, sex and self-discovery come together at a suburban dinner party and Jennifer Mills imagines a mysterious transgression in a recently militarised state. We publish new writing by Sue Booker, Philip Canon and Bronwyn Mehan, as well as the final instalment of Caroline Lee’s powerful novel Stripped and a recent graphic story by Bruce Mutard. There is also poetry by Geoff Page, Roberta Lowing, Mark Tredinnick, Anthony Lawrence and Eileen Chong, as well as many talented others.

Read an extract of Sophie Cunningham's interview with Steven Amsterdam from this edition of Meanjin.