University of Melbourne Creative Writing Program Statement on the proposed closure of MEANJIN

Image: Cover image of Meanjin 84.2, courtesy of University of Melbourne Press.

The creative writing program at the University of Melbourne is distressed by the recently announced closure of Meanjin, one of Australia’s oldest and most revered literary journals. Its international reputation carries Australian stories and voices to the world. For 85 years, Meanjin has supported, elevated and launched the careers of a staggering number of writers, including many of our own staff and students; it’s also an important resource for all teachers and students of Australian literature.

The Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature, Professor Tony Birch, says,

‘Meanjin has been a major supporter of Blak writers and artists in Australia. Without the support of such a significant literary and cultural journal, many of us would not have been able to publish as emerging writers and may not have gone on to have a publishing life at all. We must ensure that such support continues. If Australian society is genuinely committed to truth-telling, these truths will be told by Blak artists.’

As writers and creative writing academics, we know how precious journals like Meanjin are to the continuing development of Australian literature, although of course its scope goes far beyond that. While we hope new literary journals continue to emerge, Meanjin is irreplaceable.  It has survived for almost a century, through the Second World War, the Cold War and numerous budget crises, and has retained its undeniable significance as part of the University of Melbourne and Melbourne University Press. It continues to publish vital, timely work that, to paraphrase Sylvia Martin, keeps the intellectual and aesthetic fires of this continent alight.

We continue to hear from our students and will be sharing more of their responses. From two:

“Meanjin has and will always be the one literary magazine I look up to when I think of literary perfection.”

“Meanjin was my dream publication. I feel that yet another opportunity has been taken from me before I can even get my foot in the door.”

These students are completing their degrees while our industry is in crisis. Now is the moment that we, the University of Melbourne, must step up.

The cost of maintaining Meanjin to the University is minimal, but the value is enormous. As the University of Melbourne Public Humanities initiative puts it ‘culture is something that we care for, just as it cares for us.’ We call on the University of Melbourne to embrace its responsibilities to students, staff and the public good by acting promptly and housing this important journal within its Community and Cultural Partnerships portfolio and committing to resourcing it appropriately in the long term.

Meanjin is vital to each and every member of the creative writing program and we can’t imagine our future without it.

Dr Romy Ash, Dr Clem Bastow, Dr Quinn Eades, Dr Rachel Hennessy, Dr Andy Jackson, Dr Odette Kelada, Bec Kavanagh, Dr Emma Marie Jones, Dr Liz MacFarlane, Dr Helen Milte, Dr Cath Moore, Dr Nadia Niaz, Dr Radha O’Meara, Associate Professor Eddie Paterson, Dr Hayley Singer, Dr Soren Tae Smith, Associate Professor Maria Tumarkin, Associate Professor Julienne van Loon, Dr Jessica Zhan Mei Yu