''Meanjin'' (), formerly ''Meanjin Papers'' and ''Meanjin Quarterly'', is an Australian

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and lett ...

. The name is derived from the

Turrbal The Turrbal are an Aboriginal Australian people from the region of present-day Brisbane, Queensland. The name primarily referred to the dialect they spoke, the tribe itself being alternatively called ''Mianjin/Meanjin''. Mianjin was the Turrba ...

word for the spike of land where the city of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

is located. It was founded in 1940 in Brisbane, by

Clem Christesen Clement Byrne Christesen (28 October 1911 – 28 June 2003) was the founder of the Australian literary magazine '' Meanjin''. He served as the magazine's editor from 1940 until 1974. Biography Early years Clement Byrne Christesen was born and s ...

. It moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

in 1945 and is as of 2008 an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing.

History

''Meanjin'' was founded in December 1940 in Brisbane, by

. The name is derived from the

word for land on which the city of Brisbane is located. It moved to

in 1945 at the invitation of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...

. Artist and patron

Lina Bryans Lina Bryans (26 September 1909 – 30 September 2000), was an Australian modernist painter. Life Lina Bryans was born in Hamburg, Germany, on 26 August 1909, second daughter of wealthy prosperous Michaelis-Hallenstein family of industria ...

opened the doors of her

Darebin The City of Darebin is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of and in June 2018 Darebin had a population of 161,609. Municipal offices are located at 350 High Street, Preston. Dar ...

Bridge House to the ''Meanjin'' group: then Vance and

Nettie Palmer Janet Gertrude "Nettie" Palmer (née Higgins) (18 August 1885 – 19 October 1964) was an Australian poet, essayist and Australia's leading literary critic of her day. She corresponded with women writers and collated the Centenary Gift Book which ...

, Rosa and Dolia Ribush, Jean Campbell,

Laurie Thomas Laurie may refer to: Places * Laurie, Cantal, France, a commune * Laurie, Missouri, United States, a village * Laurie Island, Antarctica Music * Laurie Records, a record label * Laurie (EP), ''Laurie'' (EP), a 1992 album by Daniel Johnston * "L ...

and Alan McCulloch. There they joined the moderates in the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museums ...

(

Norman Macgeorge Norman Macgeorge (8 July 1872 – 2 September 1952) was an artist and art critic in the colony and State of Victoria. History Norman Macgeorge, artist and collector, was a son of Rachel Elizabeth Macgeorge, née Luxmoore and Alexander Macgeorge, ...

, Clive Stephen, Isobel Tweddle and

Rupert Bunny Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny (29 September 186425 May 1947) was an Australian painter. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, he achieved success and critical acclaim as an expatriate in '' fin-de-siècle'' Paris. He gained an honourable mentio ...

, Sybil Craig, Guelda Pyke, Elma Roach,

Ola Cohn Ola Cohn (born Carola Cohn; 25 April 1892 – 23 December 1964) was an Australian artist, author and philanthropist best known for her work in sculpture in a modernist style and famous for her ''Fairies Tree'' in the Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne. ...

and Madge Freeman and

George Bell George Bell may refer to: Law and politics * George Joseph Bell (1770–1843), Scottish jurist and legal author * George Alexander Bell (1856–1927), Canadian pioneer and Saskatchewan politician * George Bell (Canadian politician) (1869–1940) ...

). 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. ''Meanjin Papers'' was published under that name until 1947, and became ''Meanjin'' from 1947 to 1960, ''Meanjin Quarterly'' from 1961 to 1976, and became ''Meanjin'' again in 1976.''Australian Poets and Their Works'', by William Wilde. Oxford University Press, 1996 It includes poetry, fiction,

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

s and other forms of writing, and also produces

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

s. Since 2008 ''Meanjin'' is published as an imprint of

Melbourne University Publishing Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) is the book publishing arm of the University of Melbourne. History MUP was founded in 1922 as Melbourne University Press to sell text books and stationery to students, and soon began publishing books itself. ...

(MUP).

Notable contributors

Past contributors to ''Meanjin'' include Australian writers

Judith Wright Judith Arundell Wright (31 May 191525 June 2000) was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award. Biography Judith Wright was born in Armidale, New Sou ...

Kylie Tennant Kathleen Kylie Tennant AO (; 12 March 1912 – 28 February 1988) was an Australian novelist, playwright, short-story writer, critic, biographer, and historian. Early life and career Tennant was born in Manly, New South Wales; she was educat ...

Manning Clark Charles Manning Hope Clark, (3 March 1915 – 23 May 1991) was an Australian historian and the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume ''A History of Australia'', published between 1962 and 1987. He has been descri ...

, Vance & Nettie Palmer,

Dymphna Cusack Ellen Dymphna Cusack AM (21 September 1902 – 19 October 1981) was an Australian writer and playwright. Personal life Born in Wyalong, New South Wales, Cusack was educated at Saint Ursula's College, Armidale, New South Wales and graduated f ...

Martin Boyd Martin à Beckett Boyd (10 June 1893 – 3 June 1972) was an Australian writer born into the à Beckett– Boyd family, a family synonymous with the establishment, the judiciary, publishing and literature, and the visual arts since the early 19t ...

, Alan Marshall,

Dorothy Hewett Dorothy Coade Hewett (21 May 1923 – 25 August 2002) was an Australian playwright, poet and author, and a romantic feminist icon. In writing and in her life, Hewett was an experimenter. As her circumstances and beliefs changed, she progressed ...

, Peter Carey,

Alice Pung Alice Pung (born 1981) is an Australian writer, editor and lawyer. Her books include the memoirs ''Unpolished Gem'' (2006), ''Her Father's Daughter'' (2011) and the novel ''Laurinda'' (2014). Pung is a practising solicitor. She has also worke ...

Michelle de Kretser Michelle de Kretser (born 1957) is an Australian novelist who was born in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), and moved to Australia in 1972 when she was 14. Education and literary career De Kretser was educated at Methodist College, Colombo, and in Melbou ...

Randa Abdel-Fattah Randa Abdel-Fattah (born 6 June 1979) is an Australian writer. Randa was born in Australia and her debut novel, '' Does My Head Look Big in This?'', was published in 2005. Early life and education Abdel-Fattah was born in Sydney, New South Wal ...

and

Dorothy Porter Dorothy Featherstone Porter (26 March 1954 – 10 December 2008) was an Australian poet. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award for lifetime achievement in poetry. Early life Porter was born in Sydney. Her father was barrister ...

. International authors published include

Carmen Callil Dame Carmen Thérèse Callil, (15 July 1938 – 17 October 2022) was an Australian publisher, writer and critic who spent most of her career in the United Kingdom. She founded Virago Press in 1973 and received the Benson Medal from the Royal ...

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in ...

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

, and

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...

Editors

* 1940 to 1974:

* 1974 to 1982:

Jim Davidson James Cameron Davidson (born 13 December 1953) is an English stand-up comedian, actor, singer and TV presenter. He hosted the television shows ''Big Break'' and ''The Generation Game''. He also developed two adult pantomime shows such as ''Bo ...

* 1982 to 1987:

Judith Brett Judith Brett (born 1949, Melbourne) is an Emeritus Professor of politics at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. She retired from La Trobe in 2012, after a restructuring of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in which the School of ...

* 1987 to 1994: Jenny Lee * 1994 to 1998: Christina Thompson * 1998 to 2002: Stephanie Holt * 2002 to 2008 Ian Britain * 2008 to 2011

Sophie Cunningham Sophie Cunningham is an Australian writer and editor based in Melbourne. She is the current Chair of the Board of the Australian Society of Authors, the national peak body representing Australian authors. Career Publisher Cunningham was pub ...

* 2011 to 2012 Sally Heath * 2013 to 2015 Zora Sanders * 2015 to 2022 Jonathan Green * 2022 to present Esther Anatolitis

Poetry editors

*Dates not known:

Coral Hull Coral Hull (born 1965) is an author, poet, artist and photographer living in Darwin, Australia. She has authored many books, including poetry, fiction, non-fiction, artwork and digital photography. Her areas of special interest have been in eth ...

* mid-to-late 1970s:

Kris Hemensley Kris Alan Hemensley (born 26 April 1946) is an English- Australian poet who has published around 20 collections of poetry. Through the late 1960s and '70s he was involved in poetry workshops at La Mama, and edited the literary magazines '' Our G ...

*1979 to 1982:

Judith Rodriguez Judith Catherine Rodriguez (13 February 1936 — 22 November 2018) was an Australian poet. She was a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award. Life Rodriguez was born Judith Catherine Green in Perth and grew up in Brisbane. She was educate ...

*1987 to 1994: Philip Mead *1994 to 1997:

Laurie Duggan Laurence James Duggan (born 1949), known as Laurie Duggan, is an Australian poet, editor, and translator. Life Laurie Duggan was born in Melbourne and attended Monash University, where his friends included the poets Alan Wearne and John A. Sc ...

* 1998 to 2000: Coral Hull *1998: Brian Henry *2000 to 2005: Peter Minter *2005 to 2015:

Judith Beveridge Judith Beveridge (born 1956) is a contemporary Australian poet, editor and academic. She is a recipient of the Christopher Brennan Award. Biography Judith Beveridge was born in London, England, arriving in Australia with her parents in 1960. She ...

*2015 to present:

Bronwyn Lea Bronwyn Lea is a contemporary Australian poet, academic and editor. Biography Born in Tasmania, Lea grew up in Queensland and Papua New Guinea, moving to San Diego to study at California State University. She completed a PhD titled "The way ...

References

External links