Author(s): Sally Heath

Issues/Current Affairs

In the June edition of Meanjin, the irrepressible Ben Pobjie takes on the topic of controversial comedy, and explains why he doesn't particularly care if you're offended. Maria Tumarkin makes a potent argument for the role of storytelling in expanding our 'moral imagination' towards asylum seekers in Australia. Way down south, Peter Timms visits Tasmania's flashiest new drawcard, and finds MONA to be "the world's first bullshit free-art museum". We bring you Annie Proulx and Tim Flannery, discussing with Stephen Romei the increasingly difficult distinction between science and art. Damon Young explores biography's crucial role in understanding not only individual lives, but the great questions of morality and mortality as well, and, in the wake of so much catastrophic weather, Alexis Wright entreats us to at last learn the lessons Indigenous cultures can teach about how we are to live in this sometimes harsh country. We include memoir from Colleen Brabender, which will permanently change your view of the person on the other side of the supermarket checkout, and Elmo Keep remembers what it was like to repeatedly not read American Psycho. We feature travel writing from Jacqueline Dutton and much, much more. There is new fiction from: David Mence, Miriam Sved, John Kinsella, Trevor Shearston and Peggy Frew, as well as new poetry from Mal McKImmie, Mark Tredinnick, Eileen Chong, Andrew Slattery and Kim Cheng Boey.