Meanjin Vol 69 Number 2

In the winter edition of Meanjin, Katherine Wilson opens the velvet curtains onto the world of steampunk, Guy Rundle considers the state’s relationship to culture and the implication of that for artists, Kate Crawford retracts from the overwhelming hum of the digital age and Michael Green brings to life the painful but constructive dialogue that is taking place between coal workers and the Greens in the Latrobe valley. Sophie Cunningham talks to graphic designer Alex Stitt about his iconic ‘Life. Be in it’ and ‘Slip Slop Slap’ campaigns, and Bob Charles and Oslo Davis collaborate on a tender, illustrated piece about the calamities of love and life-threatening illness. And, as part of the Meanland project, Sherman Young tells us why he thinks digital books are here to stay but why that won’t change much at all.

In other essays, Virago founder Carmen Callil tells how she came to defend a young woman accused of inciting her husband to jihad, Catherine Strong tackles Triple J’s Hottest 100 and looks at the reasons why men with guitars came to dominate the rock canon, and Clare Wright and Alex McDermott remember the women of the Ned Kelly legend. Ben O’Mara works through the anxieties of being a (semi) professional writer, Helen Walpole investigates the science of sleep and Ella Mudie discovers the strange, industrial beauty of Walter Burley Griffin’s Willoughby Incinerator. Anne Myers takes a tough look at her series of miscarriages, Meera Atkinson is Waiting For Her Father and Richard King considers C.P. Snow’s lecture ‘The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution’ fifty years after its presentation.

In fiction, Zoe Dattner writes of being fourteen and trying to fit in where you don’t really belong and Chris Flynn imagines a future for Melbourne that is both prehistoric and new. We have stories by Karina Barker, Kay Rozynski and David McLaren, as well as Ruby Murray’s Alan Marshall Short Story Prize winner and the final instalment of Caroline Lee’s powerful novel, ‘Stripped’. June also features poetry by Mark Tredinnick, Jill Jones, Craig Powell, Shari Kocher, Les Wicks and many talented others.