Welcome to the June-July double issue! Highlights this month include a major profile of internationally-acclaimed indigenous musician Gurrumul written by Felicity Plunkett as part of her Sidney Myer Fund Fellowship, and new poems by Samuel Wagan Watson and Graham Akhurst. Plus Sheila Fitzpatrick on Lenin, Neil Kaplan on genocide, Danielle Clode on nature writing, and Tony Birch’s Reading Australia essay on Thomas Keneally’s The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. We launch a new feature called ‘Future Tense’ to highlight new and emerging writers – Ellen van Neerven is our first guest. Plus we have reviews of new fiction by Lisa Gorton, Steven Carroll, and Malcolm Knox, and Maxine Beneba Clarke is our Open Page guest.

June-July 2015, no. 372

'Sound Bridges: A Profile of Gurrumul' by Felicity Plunkett

Felicity Plunkett

In April 2011 the Australian edition of Rolling Stone featured a cover photo of Yolngu multi-instrumentalist and singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu ...

Kerryn Goldsworthy reviews 'Forever Young' by Steven Carroll

Kerryn Goldsworthy

Most Australians, if asked to name a date they associate with the name Gough Whitlam, would say ‘11 November 1975’. Steven Carroll subverts this expectation at the outset ...

Tony Birch on 'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith' by Thomas Keneally for Reading Australia

Tony Birch

Thomas Keneally’s novel The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) is based in part on historical events, particularly the crimes committed by Jimmy Governor, an Aboriginal man from New South Wales. In 1900, Governor was a key figure involved in the killing ...

Free

'Monster (0.2 Reloaded)' a new poem by Samuel Wagan Watson

Samuel Wagan Watson

I can’t speak my grandmother’s tongue and I’ve never been on my grandfather’s land. I’ve traveled here and I’ve traveled there, my culture is fabricated in government-funded laboratories ...

Free