Meanjin

<i>Meanjin</i>

Meanjin

Australian literary journal

Meanjin (/miˈændʒɪn/), formerly Meanjin Papers and Meanjin Quarterly, is an Australian literary magazine with a reputation for democratic left-of-centre politics, as against the right-wing stance of its rival Quadrant.[1] Established in 1940 in Brisbane, it moved to Melbourne in 1945 and is as of 2008 an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing.

For other uses, see Meanjin (disambiguation).
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History

The magazine was established in December 1940[2] in Brisbane, by Clem Christesen[3] as Meanjin Papers. The name is derived from the Turrbal word for land on which the city of Brisbane is located.[4]

It moved to Melbourne in 1945 at the invitation of the University of Melbourne.[5] Artist and patron Lina Bryans opened the doors of her Darebin Bridge House to the Meanjin group: then Vance and Nettie Palmer, Rosa and Dolia Ribush, Jean Campbell, Laurie Thomas, and Alan McCulloch. There they joined the moderates in the Contemporary Art Society (Norman Macgeorge, Clive Stephen, Isobel Tweddle and Rupert Bunny, Sybil Craig, Guelda Pyke, Elma Roach, Ola Cohn and Madge Freeman, and George Bell). Bryans created a free circle and was able to give the liberal, conservative modernist position in Melbourne a more vital character and a freer base than it would otherwise have had.[6]

The magazine was renamed Meanjin in 1947, then to Meanjin Quarterly in 1961, and became Meanjin again in 1976.[7][8] It includes poetry, fiction, essays, memoirs, and other forms of writing, and also produces podcasts.[9][5]

Since 2008 Meanjin is published as an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing.[5]

Notable contributors

The magazine has been the vehicle for important new work by Australian writers A. D. Hope, James McAuley, Douglas Stewart, Judith Wright, Patrick White, Randolph Stow, Joan London, Frank Moorhouse, and Les Murray. Special issues have been devoted to Joseph Furphy and Vance Palmer, among others.[1]

Editors

During Christina Thompson editorship, in 1995 Cassandra Pybus was guest editor for issue 2 titled O Canada. It features both Canadian and Australian writing including an essay by Gerry Turcotte, a Canadian teaching at the University of Wollongong and co-editor of Australia Canada Studies.

Poetry editors

References

  1. [1]
    W. H. Wilde; Joy Hooton; Barry Andrews, eds. (1994). The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 525. ISBN 019553381X.
  2. [2]
    "Australian Magazines of the Twentieth Century". AustLit. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  3. [3]
    Laurie Clancy (2004). Culture and Customs of Australia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-313-32169-6. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  4. [4]
    "Meanjin debacle: erasing Aboriginal words in order to highlight white women's appropriation". NITV.
  5. [5]
    "About". Meanjin. 7 April 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  6. [6]
    Forwood, Gillian (2003). "Chapter 3. Darebin Bridge House and the Art Establishment 1940–1945". Lina Bryans: Rare Modern, 1909–2000. Carlton, Victoria: Miegunyah Press. ISBN 9780522850376.
  7. [7]
    Australian Poets and Their Works, by William Wilde. Oxford University Press, 1996
  8. [8]
    "Meanjin [catalogue entry]", Trove, University of Melbourne, 1977
  9. [9]
    "Editions". Meanjin. 16 December 2021. Archived from the original on 8 February 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  10. [10]
    "Green to Leave Meanjin". Books+Publishing. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  11. [11]
    "Anatolitis appointed Meanjin editor". Books+Publishing. 10 October 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2023.

Further reading

  • Davidson, Jim (2022). Emperors in Lilliput – Clem Christesen of Meanjin and Stephen Murray-Smith of Overland. Miegunyah Press. ISBN 9780522877403.
  • Jenny Lee; Philip Mead; Gerald Murnane, eds. (1990). The Temperament of Generations: Fifty Years of Meanjin. Meanjin. ISBN 9780522844481.
  • Strahan, Lyn (1985). Just City and the Mirrors: Meanjin Quarterly and the Intellectual Front, 1940–1965. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195544213.
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