Their Transformations is an essay about the lives of the Scott family, nineteenth century Australian lepidopterists. It is published in the Autumn 2023 edition of EcoTheo. You can read it here, and purchase a copy of the magazine here.
The Lookering is a long, meandering essay about the Burren, Ireland, the Torrens, Australia, and Auschwitz, Poland, and the way people, ghosts, persist in natural landscapes. Science Write Now is a new publication charting the cartography of science and creativity.
A think piece about the relationship between amoeba, Micrographia and most Australian politicians.
An essay about William Dobell, Max Harris, 1944, and the road to Berlin. Also, how Australia seems to have abandoned the life of ideas.
A piece about Tallangatta, a submerged town in north-east Victoria, and a meditation on time, the persistence of people and spirit in place.
A piece about Tallangatta, a submerged town in north-east Victoria, and a meditation on time, the persistence of people and spirit in place.
'The Boy in Time' is an attempt to work out how landscapes make people, how we are a function of place and time. It appears in the beautifully edited, designed and produced Westerly 66.1 (Winter 2021). This piece of experimental non-fiction won the 2022 Patricia Hackett Prize, and you can read it here.
I wrote this piece for Meanjin. It concerns the rare night parrot, and the explorer-murderer Kenneth Brown, and what it takes to become an Australian holotype.
A piece about bus trips, Krakow, Prague and the skies of Middle Europe, here, in Griffith Review 69 The European Exchange.
This piece in the Journal of Wild Culture talks about how we (mis)understand nature by reducing it to names, terms, facts.
2018. A chat with Philip Adams on Late Night Live about The Fierce Country.
This 2017 long-form essay looks at the diversity, genetics, ancestry, mythology, uses and misuses of the eucalypts.
March 2018. This piece in minor literature[s] concerns James Agee, and the writing of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, as well as some of the pitfalls (and costs) of turning fact into fiction.
The Art of Reading (December 2012)
Have our bookshops become the Library of Babel? Gibberish, trivia and a thousand ways to cook mince? What is the fate of literature in the Age of Distraction?
History (April 2013)
What did our grandparents listen to on the nightly radio? What did they cook? How did their kids entertain themselves? What are Condy's crystals? And does anything old really matter any more?
Being Glenn Gould (August 2013)
From Bach to The Idea of North (the radio documentary). Gould knew all about isolation.
Year of the Luddite (February 2014)
Why are we so obsessed with technology? A lesson from history.
Pennies for Eileen (August 2014)
A strange little Eileen biopic from 1951 perfectly captures Australian values from a bygone era.
Fifty-One (January 2015)
Robin Boyd's take on the lot of the Australian creative artist seems truer now than ever.
Adelaide, Summer: 2015 (February 2015)
James Agee's lyrical masterpiece settles on the long lawns and coiled hoses of Adelaide, and the memory of Barbara Hanrahan, a hundred years later.
Young Beavis (April 2015)
Beavis Beck lived for books. Worked in EW Cole's Melbourne bookshop. Spent his life spreading the word.
The Bones (September 2015)
Every day we become smarter, yet less willing to use our intelligence.
Life Between graveyards and bookshops (May 2016)
An essay on deja vu, and how it follows us, reminding us of where we might have been.
Dismaland (July 2016)
A feature about Banksy's Dismaland, and how it might be a point of reflection for many of us (especially those interested in starting nuclear waste dumps).
Adelaide in 1936: A Year of Great Promise (March 2017)
A hundred years old, and still hopeful. So what's changed?
Could Adelaide ever be the Berlin of the South? (April 2017)
What makes Berlin big, in its thinking, ambitions, creativity? What are the lessons for Australian cities?
I'm an Anarchist - So What? (June 2017)
What makes Max Harris a great poet, and what has he got to tell us about freedom of speech?
On the trail of the Stasi (November 2017)
Describes a visit to the former East Berlin Stasi headquarters and prison, and asks is this a vision of the past, or future?
A Tale of a Lit City (January 2018)
To be a UNESCO City of Literature, Adelaide would at least have to like books.
The Last Man in Adelaide (February 2018)
Explores the growing number of ways governments encourage compliance.
City of Smells (April 2018)
Smell, memory and the past.
Why? (November 2018)
Asks a lot of questions that probably don't have any answers. The point? Of anything?
Sunny-boy and story-free (December 2018)
A small tetrahedral ice-block saved this country (almost) from illiteracy.
Why I want to praise Ern Malley, 75 years on (June 2019)
In my final piece for The Adelaide Review, I examine what we really make of freedom, fraud and poetry.
Death of the Social Contract (July 2019)
The glue that held society together has dried, and failed. What's to be done?
Have our bookshops become the Library of Babel? Gibberish, trivia and a thousand ways to cook mince? What is the fate of literature in the Age of Distraction?
History (April 2013)
What did our grandparents listen to on the nightly radio? What did they cook? How did their kids entertain themselves? What are Condy's crystals? And does anything old really matter any more?
Being Glenn Gould (August 2013)
From Bach to The Idea of North (the radio documentary). Gould knew all about isolation.
Year of the Luddite (February 2014)
Why are we so obsessed with technology? A lesson from history.
Pennies for Eileen (August 2014)
A strange little Eileen biopic from 1951 perfectly captures Australian values from a bygone era.
Fifty-One (January 2015)
Robin Boyd's take on the lot of the Australian creative artist seems truer now than ever.
Adelaide, Summer: 2015 (February 2015)
James Agee's lyrical masterpiece settles on the long lawns and coiled hoses of Adelaide, and the memory of Barbara Hanrahan, a hundred years later.
Young Beavis (April 2015)
Beavis Beck lived for books. Worked in EW Cole's Melbourne bookshop. Spent his life spreading the word.
The Bones (September 2015)
Every day we become smarter, yet less willing to use our intelligence.
Life Between graveyards and bookshops (May 2016)
An essay on deja vu, and how it follows us, reminding us of where we might have been.
Dismaland (July 2016)
A feature about Banksy's Dismaland, and how it might be a point of reflection for many of us (especially those interested in starting nuclear waste dumps).
Adelaide in 1936: A Year of Great Promise (March 2017)
A hundred years old, and still hopeful. So what's changed?
Could Adelaide ever be the Berlin of the South? (April 2017)
What makes Berlin big, in its thinking, ambitions, creativity? What are the lessons for Australian cities?
I'm an Anarchist - So What? (June 2017)
What makes Max Harris a great poet, and what has he got to tell us about freedom of speech?
On the trail of the Stasi (November 2017)
Describes a visit to the former East Berlin Stasi headquarters and prison, and asks is this a vision of the past, or future?
A Tale of a Lit City (January 2018)
To be a UNESCO City of Literature, Adelaide would at least have to like books.
The Last Man in Adelaide (February 2018)
Explores the growing number of ways governments encourage compliance.
City of Smells (April 2018)
Smell, memory and the past.
Why? (November 2018)
Asks a lot of questions that probably don't have any answers. The point? Of anything?
Sunny-boy and story-free (December 2018)
A small tetrahedral ice-block saved this country (almost) from illiteracy.
Why I want to praise Ern Malley, 75 years on (June 2019)
In my final piece for The Adelaide Review, I examine what we really make of freedom, fraud and poetry.
Death of the Social Contract (July 2019)
The glue that held society together has dried, and failed. What's to be done?
Point Puer Prison
Apparently, at some point, locking children away in this remote prison seemed like a good idea.
The Tea and Sugar
A train that serviced the needs of fettlers and their families along the Nullarbor for decades.
Lasseter's Reef
The life and legend of Harold Lasseter and his elusive reef of gold.
Apparently, at some point, locking children away in this remote prison seemed like a good idea.
The Tea and Sugar
A train that serviced the needs of fettlers and their families along the Nullarbor for decades.
Lasseter's Reef
The life and legend of Harold Lasseter and his elusive reef of gold.
A piece written to coincide with the release of The Fierce Country. What do Australians make of their own country, its landscapes, its myths and stories? Are we in denial about where we live, out history, and how it's formed us (for better or worse)? Find out here.
A Modest Discovery (July 2016)
A tour of writers' houses in Dublin, London, Edinburgh and Berlin.
Victor Hugo's Wallpaper (April 2019)
The tour continues in Paris!
A tour of writers' houses in Dublin, London, Edinburgh and Berlin.
Victor Hugo's Wallpaper (April 2019)
The tour continues in Paris!
Great Expectations (23 September 2010)
The story of South Australia's most talented politician, Kelly Vincent.
Turn of Fate (12 March 2011)
The tragedy of the loss of the Page family in the outback.
Boom Crash Opera - wrestling's back! (24 September 2011)
A night at Riot City Wrestling.
Afterlife: the tour to die for (10 December 2011)
Behind the scenes at Centennial Park cemetery.
After Midnight (25 February 2012)
When the sun sets and the offices are closed, a different cast of people come out on to the city's streets.
Sachsenhausen (May 2016)
A day at Hitler's first concentration camp is a sobering experience.
What's Behind The Door? (January 2018)
Scott McCarten spends his spare time scouring the state for images of the past.
The hoax that won't die
Max Harris, Ern Malley and Censorship (July 2019)
Words and Music (December 2019)
Profiles the talented young songwriter and performer Angus Brill Reed.
The story of South Australia's most talented politician, Kelly Vincent.
Turn of Fate (12 March 2011)
The tragedy of the loss of the Page family in the outback.
Boom Crash Opera - wrestling's back! (24 September 2011)
A night at Riot City Wrestling.
Afterlife: the tour to die for (10 December 2011)
Behind the scenes at Centennial Park cemetery.
After Midnight (25 February 2012)
When the sun sets and the offices are closed, a different cast of people come out on to the city's streets.
Sachsenhausen (May 2016)
A day at Hitler's first concentration camp is a sobering experience.
What's Behind The Door? (January 2018)
Scott McCarten spends his spare time scouring the state for images of the past.
The hoax that won't die
Max Harris, Ern Malley and Censorship (July 2019)
Words and Music (December 2019)
Profiles the talented young songwriter and performer Angus Brill Reed.
A series of pieces about Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood and Ernst Haffner's Blutsbruder.
This piece is about my trip to Auschwitz.
Various articles here.
This piece is about my trip to Auschwitz.
Various articles here.
