Some years ago, I wrote about the terrible repercussions that would follow if the literary magazine Island were forced to close following its defunding by the Tasmanian state government’s arts funding body. I argued that there would be significant impacts for readers and writers throughout the nation. In the end, the magazine survived, but only because of a lengthy period of seriously hard work by the magazine’s staff and board that raised enough support to keep it off the chopping block and get it back on its feet.
This appears to be in embarrassing contrast to the efforts at Meanjin, where the board of Melbourne University Publishing has announced that after 85 years the magazine will simply close, making its two part-time staff (who were not involved in the decision) redundant and shutting the doors on what has long been regarded as Australia’s most prestigious literary magazine. Where is any sort of similar commitment to keep the magazine going in some form? As author Jennifer Mills wrote on social media: “The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers … An entirely avoidable disaster.”
