Welcome to the April 400th issue! Highlights include:
- Beejay Silcox on Australian magazine culture
- Lucas Grainger-Brown’s Calibre Prize-winning essay
- Neal Blewett’s review of Kevin Rudd’s memoir
- David Brophy on Silent Invasion by Clive Hamilton
- Poetry by John Kinsella, Gig Ryan, and Judith Beveridge
- Sarah Sentilles is our Open Page guest
April 2018, no. 400
Editorial on ABR's 400th issue by Peter Rose
A cynic once remarked that an editor needs two things: good grammar and a long memory. But we all know there’s a bit more to it than that. As we prepare to send the April issue to press – the four hundredth in the magazine’s second series – it occurs to me that an editor’s main function is to be a recogniser of expertise ...
2018 Calibre Essay Prize (Winner): 'We Three Hundred'
I signed away ten years of my life at high school. Three hundred or so teenagers did likewise around the country; from Sydney and Melbourne to the wind-rustle quiet of burnt umber townships. We had similar reasons – wanting to be heroes and leaders, chasing self-respect, escaping loose ends, following Simpson and his donkey ...
'Defying the moment' by Beejay Silcox
Moments began as medieval measures, the time it took for a sundial’s blade of shadow to shift – ninety seconds or so, depending on the season. A slice of sunlight. A moment now carries cultural as well as temporal weight. A slice of spotlight. Increasingly, we speak of our present as a moment, as if its minutes are sprung ...
David Brophy reviews 'Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia' by Clive Hamilton
Lawyers, media organisations, human rights NGOs, and unions have been lining up recently to warn us of a serious threat facing civil liberties in Australia. It comes in the form of Malcolm Turnbull’s new national security laws, which, in the name of combating foreign influence, would criminalise anyone who simply ‘receives ...
