Meanjin

{{Infobox magazine

| title = Meanjin

| editor = Esther Anatolitis

| editor_title =

| previous_editor =

| staff_writer =

| frequency =

| circulation =

| category =

| company =

| founder = Clem Christesen

| publisher = Melbourne University Publishing

| firstdate = {{Start date|df=yes|1940|12}}

| country = Australia

| based = Melbourne

| website = {{URL|https://meanjin.com.au/}}

| issn = 0815-953X

| oclc = 3972868

}}

Meanjin ({{IPAc-en|m|i|ˈ|æ|n|dʒ|ɪ|n}}), formerly Meanjin Papers and Meanjin Quarterly, is one of Australia's longest-running literary magazines. Established in 1940 in Brisbane, it moved to Melbourne in 1945 and as of 2008 is an editorially independent imprint of Melbourne University Publishing. A print edition is produced quarterly, while it is updated continuously online.

History

The magazine was established in December 1940{{cite web |title=Australian Magazines of the Twentieth Century |work=AustLit |url= http://www.austlit.edu.au/specialistDatasets/BookHistory/AustMag |access-date=1 January 2012}} in Brisbane, by Clem Christesen{{cite book |author=Laurie Clancy |title=Culture and Customs of Australia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REN8gTardCUC&pg=PA123 |access-date=30 April 2016 |year=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-32169-6 |page=125}}{{cite web |title=Australian Literary Journals |website=Sudo Journal |date=19 March 2018 |url=https://sudojournal.com/australian-literary-journals/ |access-date=12 October 2024}} as Meanjin Papers. The name is derived from the Turrbal/Yagara word for land on which the city of Brisbane is located.{{Cite web |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2018/06/06/meanjin-debacle-erasing-aboriginal-words-order-highlight-white-womens-1 |title=Meanjin debacle: erasing Aboriginal words in order to highlight white women's appropriation |website=NITV}}{{Cite web |date=2023-06-14 |title=Makunschan, Meeanjan, Miganchan, Meanjan, Magandjin |url=https://meanjin.com.au/essays/makunschan-meeanjan-miganchan-meanjan-magandjin/ |access-date=2024-10-09 |website=Meanjin |language=en-AU}}

It moved to Melbourne in 1945 at the invitation of the University of Melbourne. 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.{{cite book |last=Forwood |first=Gillian |title=Lina Bryans: Rare Modern, 1909–2000 |year=2003 |chapter=Chapter 3. Darebin Bridge House and the Art Establishment 1940–1945 |publisher=Miegunyah Press |location=Carlton, Victoria |isbn=9780522850376}}

The magazine was renamed Meanjin in 1947, then to Meanjin Quarterly in 1961, and became Meanjin again in 1976.Australian Poets and Their Works, by William Wilde. Oxford University Press, 1996{{Citation | title=Meanjin [catalogue entry] |publication-date=1977 |publisher=University of Melbourne |website=Trove |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11272871/version/180808843}}

Since 2008 and {{as of|lc=yes|2021}} Meanjin is published as an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing.{{cite web |title=About |website=Meanjin |date=7 April 2021 |url=https://meanjin.com.au/about-meanjin/ |access-date=2 March 2022}}

In 2016, Meanjin lost its funding by the Australia Council, in its four-year cycle of funding.{{cite web |title=Literary magazines 'radically overlooked' by Australia Council |website=ArtsHub Australia |date=14 April 2020 |url=https://www.artshub.com.au/news/news/literary-magazines-radically-overlooked-by-australia-council-260176-2367015/ |access-date=12 October 2024}}

Description

Meanjin is one of Australia's longest-running literary magazines.{{cite web |title=Is this the final chapter for one of Australia's oldest literary journals? |website=InDaily| first=Judith| last=Armstrong |date=19 May 2016 |url=https://www.indaily.com.au/arts-culture/books-and-poetry/2016/05/19/is-this-the-final-chapter-for-one-of-australias-oldest-literary-journals |access-date=12 October 2024}}{{cite web |last=Tan |first=Monica |title=Literary magazine Meanjin may close after losing Australia Council funding |website=The Guardian |date=12 May 2016 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/12/literary-magazine-meanjin-may-close-after-losing-australia-council-funding |access-date=12 October 2024}}{{efn|Hermes, published by the University of Sydney Union, was established in 1886,{{cite web |title=Hermes : an undergraduate's magazine |website=University of Sydney Library |date=13 January 2020 |url=https://digital.library.sydney.edu.au/nodes/view/6395 |access-date=12 October 2024}} but has not been published continuously;{{cite web |title=Hermes : an undergraduate's magazine |website=Catalogue |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1636600 |access-date=12 October 2024|quote=Vol. 1, no. 1 (Thursday July 29, 1886)-v. 10, no. 7 (Thursday Dec.13 1894); New issue, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Apr. 26th [1895])-[1969]; New issue, Vol. 1, no. 1 (1985)-.}} Southerly was first published in September 1939.{{cite web |title=Southerly : the magazine of the Australian English Association, Sydney |website=Catalogue |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1595440 |access-date=12 October 2024}}}} For the first two years it was issued on a bi-monthly basis, and later in 1944 was published as a larger quarterly work with approximately 4,000 circulation.{{Cite web |last=Strahan |first=Lynne |date=Summer 1980 |title=‘Our City Piquant’: Meanjin’s Queensland Years |url=https://meanjin.com.au/essays/our-city-piquant-meanjins-queensland-years/ |access-date=3 January 2025 |website=Meanjin}}

It is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal, which "manag[es] to be serious and playful at once". It includes philosophy,{{cite web |last=Annear |first=Robyn |title=Puzzling the purpose of Australian literary magazines |website=The Monthly |date=1 October 2013 |url=https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/october/1380549600/robyn-annear/puzzling-purpose-australian-literary-magazines |access-date=12 October 2024}} poetry, fiction, essays, memoirs, and other forms of writing, and also produces podcasts.{{cite web |title=Editions |website=Meanjin |date=16 December 2021 |url=https://meanjin.com.au/editions/ |access-date=2 March 2022 |archive-date=8 Feb 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220208181042/https://meanjin.com.au/editions/}} A print edition is produced quarterly, while the online edition is updated on a daily basis.{{cite web |title=Meanjin |website=Melbourne University Publishing |url=https://www.mup.com.au/meanjin |access-date=12 October 2024}}

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.{{cite book |title=The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1994 |isbn=019553381X |editor=W. H. Wilde |edition=Second |page=525 |editor2=Joy Hooton |editor3=Barry Andrews}}

Editors

{{columns-list|

1940–1974: Clem Christesen
1974–1982: Jim Davidson
1982–1987: Judith Brett
1987–1994: Jenny Lee
1994–1998: Christina Thompson
1998–2002: Stephanie Holt
2002–2008 Ian Britain
2008–2011 Sophie Cunningham
2011–2012 Sally Heath
2013–2015 Zora Sanders
2015–2022 Jonathan Green{{Cite web |last= |date=2022-05-17 |title=Green to Leave Meanjin |website=Books+Publishing |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2022/05/17/214283/green-to-leave-meanjin/ |access-date=2022-05-20 |language=en-AU}}
2022–present Esther Anatolitis{{Cite web |date=2022-10-10 |title=Anatolitis appointed Meanjin editor |website=Books+Publishing |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2022/10/10/221392/anatolitis-appointed-meanjin-editor/ |access-date=2023-09-12}}

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During Christina Thompson's 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 writer teaching at the University of Wollongong and co-editor of Australia Canada Studies. During Esther Anatolitis's editorship, in 2023 Eugenia Flynn (Larrakia and Tiwi) and Bridget Caldwell-Bright (Jingle and Mudburra) were guest editors of the journal's first-ever all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander edition, Meanjin 82.3, Spring 2023.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-02 |title=Meanjin announces Eugenia Flynn and Bridget Caldwell-Bright as Guest Editors of First Nations edition |url=https://meanjin.com.au/latest/meanjin-announces-eugenia-flynn-and-bridget-caldwell-bright-as-guest-editors-of-spring-2023-first-nations-edition/ |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=Meanjin |language=en-AU}}