‘Cultural pillage’: The Australian literary community responds to Meanjin’s closure
In light of the news late last week that Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) withdrew funding from Meanjin, industry figures and publications across the local scene shared their dismay at the forced closure of the 85-year-old literary journal, while commentary appeared in a range of news publications, such as the Conversation (twice), Crikey and the Guardian.
Among responses from those in the Australian literary community, writer and academic Ben Eltham shared plans for a rally to take place outside the MUP offices at 715 Swanston Street on Thursday morning, while novelist and poet Alan Fyfe authored an open letter to the university’s vice chancellor speaking out against the publication’s closure, which at the time of writing has garnered over 2300 signatures, and which is still open for signatures.
Here, Books+Publishing rounds up snippets from some of the many posts and articles arising over the past week, in which writers, editors, publishing professionals and organisations share their views on the cultural significance of the publication and (unanimous) disagreement with the decision to shutter the magazine ‘on purely financial grounds’.
Copyright Agency is saddened by the announcement that Meanjin will cease publishing this December, after 85 years.
As the nation’s second oldest literary journal, Meanjin has played a vital role in shaping Australia’s literary landscape, offering formative publishing opportunities for writers and helping to launch many literary careers. This was part of an important tradition in which universities, including through their presses, would promote and foster Australia’s cultural activities.
Through our Cultural Fund, we have proudly supported Meanjin over many years. This support has helped bring the voices of many important writers to the page, and most recently contributed to the publication of a series of essays by First Nations Elders.
The closure of such an essential journal represents a great loss to the Australian literary sector.
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA)
Meanjin has been an esteemed mainstay of the Australian literary scene since 1940, and over those 85 years it has provided a launch pad for author careers, and space to generate discourse that has shaped Australian literary culture. The magazine has had a roll call of exceptional editors, and showcased the work of some of our best book designers and illustrators. Literary journals such as Meanjin have provided vital opportunities for authors, not only for publication, but also for editorial experience. The closure of Australia’s second-oldest literary journal represents a considerable loss to Australian authors and national literary culture.
Author, ASA chair and former Meanjin editor Sophie Cunningham, speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald
Now I’m just trying to fill in the gaps here like everyone else, but it seems to me that it is unreasonable for the University of Melbourne to put the entire financial load of managing a cultural institution as significant as Meanjin onto Melbourne University Publishing. All publishing houses are having a hard time at the moment. Sales are down, paper prices are up. Literary journals have never been a commercial enterprise; they have been a cultural enterprise, and if the university continued to support the journal, they would be honouring their cultural investments of the past, and making a cultural investment in the future. To talk about the ‘problem’ of Meanjin as being a commercial one is to disavow the purpose of a university.
BWF is saddened to hear of the shuttering of esteemed literary journal Meanjin. Arts institutions are far frailer than many imagine. When weighing financial cost please consider cultural loss.
We share the literary community’s sorrow and outrage at the MUP board’s arbitrary decision to close the much loved journal Meanjin after 85 years. Whether or not the rumours of outside influence have any weight, this is yet another demonstration of how inept and radically unfit for purpose the culture of governance in Australia’s universities has become. They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
High-quality journals like Meanjin have provided writers with the exposure required to establish their careers, as well as for readers to engage with contemporary thinking important to the evolution of literary and social culture.
This threat to the national literary scene is not limited to the closure of just one literary journal located on the east coast, but sets a dangerous standard which may affect others.
[…]
Writing WA advocates for writers, publishers and all others involved in the writing sector, and calls for an alternative solution to the closure of Meanjin or any other established literary organisation.
Poet and academic Jeanine Leane, speaking to SBS
[The closure] is cultural pillage. A real – it is a type, if you like, I deliberately use that word, editing and national consciousness in a way. It’s a way of enforcing, I suppose, shutting down a whole lot of voices. So in many ways it’s a form of censorship. Shutting down an avenue for a lot of voices is a form of censorship.
[…]
And it’s one less space; one more space taken away from us as a minority, but a minority but very prolific and very articulate community. It was one more safe space that we had that is now being taken away from us.
Author Claire G Coleman, on Bluesky
Meanjin is 85 years old; older than the Sydney Opera House. Closing it down is cultural vandalism of the highest order, roughly equivalent to demolishing the above mentioned opera house.
I am disgusted.
Former Westerly editor Catherine Noske
To see the team behind Meanjin treated with such little respect as to be made redundant effective immediately with the announcement, and seemingly even gagged against speaking out, is a cruel response to their dedication and diligence.
And while a literary magazine is not profitable, its costs in the scheme of a university budget are relatively small. On the other hand, the return – the enormous contribution that Meanjin makes to our culture, to the careers of writers, to considered debate and social consciousness in our nation – is impossible to account.
The closure of Meanjin is, in this sense, an insult to Australian culture. It is a damaging and short-sighted assessment of value, placing greater significance on small-scale cost-saving than the inestimable richness of the space Meanjin holds for Australian literature. It disregards coldly the cultural wealth of the magazine, and the cultural infrastructure it represents on a national level. Make no mistake, our nation is poorer for this.
Meanjin has a central place in our culture. The literary magazine sector would be diminished by its loss.
Literary magazines do something different to newspapers and books – they provide a space for considered reflection, cultural criticism and creativity. They respond to the moment, but not in a moment.
In the first issue of Meanjin, in 1940, editor Clem Christesen wrote: ‘In an age governed by the stomach-and-pocket view of life, and at a time of war and transition, we still strive to “talk poetry”. For we believe that it is our duty to do so.’
That Meanjin talked poetry for 85 years is a testament to the hard work, dedication and skill of its editorial teams and to the vision of its readers and supporters.
ABR hopes that there can be a path forward for Meanjin.
Author Jessica White, writing for ArtsHub
Not only are we losing a critical feature of Australian literary heritage, but editor Esther Anatolitis and deputy editor Eli McLean have reportedly lost their jobs. As former editor of the Sydney Review of Books Catriona Menzies-Pike wrote in her 2023 report with Samuel Ryan, Literary Journals in Australia, insecure work is one of the reasons for a lack of diversity in literary organisations. As an author herself and champion of Australian writing and writers, the loss of Anatolitis’s commentary and editorial influence will be profound.
[…]
The demise of Australia’s second oldest literary magazine (following on the heels of the oldest, Southerly, established just a year earlier, in 1939), represents the loss of opportunity for Australia’s future writers. It also signals an attenuation of ‘the quality, quantity and diversity of publishing and editorial initiatives in Melbourne’ – one of the reasons why Melbourne was designated a UNESCO City of Literature.
The board of Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, via president Frank Bongiorno
The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences expresses its opposition to the decision by the board of Melbourne University Publishing to end publication of the journal Meanjin. Since its first appearance in Brisbane 85 years ago, Meanjin has been among the most engaged, influential and prestigious of Australia’s cultural and literary publications. It has also provided unmatched opportunities for Australian writers, informed and educated readers about cultural and literary matters at home and abroad, and revealed the Australian people to themselves. It is part of the national cultural infrastructure, and the nation will be much the poorer for its disappearance. We call on MUP and the University of Melbourne to reverse this decision and to work with Australia’s cultural and literary sector in finding a sustainable basis for Meanjin’s future.
Academic and writer Ben Eltham, writing for the Conversation
Meanjin is a nationally significant cultural institution with a storied history. Closing it suddenly, without warning and with no consultation, on ‘purely financial grounds’, is a very deliberate act.
If an institution this venerable and important can be killed off with the click of a mouse, few cultural organisations in the country can feel safe.
Category:
