We are delighted to host the launch of Melbourne writing collective Meridian Australis' CRUX 2026, their third anthology of Australian speculative fiction.

Having just won the Aurealis Award for their collection AUSTRAL 2025, Meridian Australis is hot off the presses with their next publication: CRUX 2026, an anthology of speculative literary fiction, poetry and illustrations from a variety of rising Australian talent. Pulling from hundreds of submissions from all across the country, CRUX brings together the strengths of genre and the originality of literary fiction under a distinctly Australian umbrella. In uncertain times, speculation is not an escape—it is a necessity, to imagine how things might be, or how we might make them. It is hope.

Join us for a night of readings, and a celebration of what makes Australian speculative fiction an artistic force like no other! 

Free, but bookings are essential.

Please book here.

For information regarding accessibility at Readings Carlton, please click here.