Meanjin

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Meanjin
Editorvacant
PublisherQueensland University of Technology
FounderClem Christesen
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CountryAustralia
Based inBrisbane (1940–1945, 2026–present)
Melbourne (1945–2025)
Websitemeanjin.com.au
ISSN0815-953X
OCLC3972868

Meanjin (/miˈændʒɪn/), 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 became an editorially independent imprint of Melbourne University Publishing. A print edition is produced quarterly, while it is updated continuously online. Publication of Meanjin was to cease at the end of 2025, but was instead acquired by the Queensland University of Technology in 2026, returning it to Brisbane after 85 years.

History

Origin

Established in Brisbane by Clem Christesen[1][2] in 1940 as a literary magazine titled Meanjin Papers, and named for the Turrbal/Yagara word for land on which the city of Brisbane is located.[3][4] In its first issue, released for Christmas 1940,[5] Christesen introduced it:

Literature and art, poetry and drama do not spring into being at the word of command. Their life is a continuous process growing within itself, and its suppression is death. Therefore we determined to commence publication of the Meanjin Papers[6]

The magazine Angry Penguins in its issue no. 4 gave a qualified commendation: "We Approve: Meanjin Papers", edited by Clem Christesen in Queensland. Here the spirit  is willing but the flesh is weak."[7]

Melbourne

It moved to Melbourne in 1945 at the invitation of the University of Melbourne.[8] 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.[9]

The magazine was renamed Meanjin in 1947, then to Meanjin Quarterly in 1961, and became Meanjin again in 1976.[10][11]

In 1971, the magazine was selling approximately 2,000 copies of each issue.[12] This had dropped to 1,800 in 2000,[13] and to 1,400 copies in 2001, but rose again to 2,000 by 2007 according to editor Ian Britain,[14] while a separate estimate suggested the true number was closer to 800.[15] Between 2004 and 2008, Meanjin claimed to circulate approximately 2,000 copies of each issue through subscriptions and book store sales, including subscriptions held by 500 libraries in Australia and an additional 300 libraries overseas.[16][17]

Since 2008 Meanjin has been published as an editorially independent imprint of Melbourne University Publishing (MUP).[8]

Planned cessation

In September 2025, Melbourne University Publishing announced a controversial decision[18] to cease publication of Meanjin at the end of 2025,[19] but to retain its website and an online archive.[20] Editor Esther Anatolitis and production editor Eli McLean were made redundant.[18] The then chair of MUP, Warren Bebbington, claimed the decision to close was made on "purely financial grounds".[21] This was received with scepticism in light of the journal's recent $100,000 grant from Creative Australia. Bebbington denied the claim[21] that the journal was closed because of an article by Max Kaiser in 2024 in which he characterised antisemitism not as "eternal hatred" but as a phenomenon of racism in the context of Australia's foundational white supremacy ideology.[22]

Return to Brisbane

In February 2026, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) announced that it had acquired Meanjin with the intention to restart publication. The ownership agreement committed to maintaining editorial independence through an independent editorial board.[21]

Description

Meanjin was one of Australia's longest-running literary magazines.[23][24][a] 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.[28]

A scholarly, peer-reviewed journal, it "manag[ed] to be serious and playful at once". Subjects included philosophy,[29] poetry, fiction, essays, memoirs, and other forms of writing, and also produces podcasts.[30][8] A print edition was produced quarterly. The online edition is updated on a daily basis.[31]

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, Sarah Holland-Batt, Ellen van Neerven, and Les Murray. Special issues have been devoted to Joseph Furphy and Vance Palmer, among others.[32]

Editors

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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.[36]

Poetry editors

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Hermes, published by the University of Sydney Union, was established in 1886,[25] but has not been published continuously;[26] Southerly was first published in September 1939.[27]

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Laurie Clancy (2004). Culture and Customs of Australia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-313-32169-6. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Australian Literary Journals". Sudo Journal. 19 March 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Meanjin debacle: erasing Aboriginal words in order to highlight white women's appropriation". NITV.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Makunschan, Meeanjan, Miganchan, Meanjan, Magandjin". Meanjin. 14 June 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Australian Magazines of the Twentieth Century". AustLit. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Christesen, Clem (1940). "Introduction". Meanjin Papers: Contemporary Queensland Verse. 1 (1). Brisbane: G. Busch. ISSN 1324-1737.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Harris, Max (September 1943). "We Approve". Angry Penguins. 1 (4). Reed & Harris: 19.
  8. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."About". Meanjin. 7 April 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.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.
  10. ^ Australian Poets and Their Works, by William Wilde. Oxford University Press, 1996
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Meanjin [catalogue entry]", Trove, University of Melbourne, 1977
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Campisi, Dale (3 February 2004). "Little Magazines, Great Divides". Meanjin. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sullivan, Jane (23 December 2000). "Happy Birthday, Meanjin". The Age Extra/Books. p. 6.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Moorhouse, Frank (3 June 2007). "From quill to keyboard". The Age. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."At Meanjin, suddenly, nothing happened". Crikey. 12 June 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."27 Oct 2004 – Advertising | Meanjin – Archived Website". Trove. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."15 May 2008 – Advertising | Meanjin – Archived Website". Trove. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  18. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Eltham, Ben (8 September 2025). "The decision to close Meanjin misunderstands its wider importance. Australian culture deserves better". The Conversation. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hunt, Richelle (5 September 2025). "The loss of a literary journal". The Conversation Hour. ABC Radio Melbourne. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Frequently Asked Questions". Meanjin. 5 September 2025. Retrieved 9 September 2025.
  21. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Burke, Kelly (11 February 2026). "'A cultural icon': axed Australian literary journal Meanjin finds new life in Queensland". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 February 2026. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kaiser, Max (Spring 2024). "Jews, antisemitism and power in Australia". Meanjin. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Armstrong, Judith (19 May 2016). "Is this the final chapter for one of Australia's oldest literary journals?". InDaily. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Tan, Monica (12 May 2016). "Literary magazine Meanjin may close after losing Australia Council funding". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Hermes : an undergraduate's magazine". University of Sydney Library. 13 January 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Hermes : an undergraduate's magazine". Catalogue. Retrieved 12 October 2024. 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)-.
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Southerly : the magazine of the Australian English Association, Sydney". Catalogue. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  28. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Strahan, Lynne (Summer 1980). "'Our City Piquant': Meanjin[[:Template:']]s Queensland Years". Meanjin. Retrieved 3 January 2025. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  29. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Annear, Robyn (1 October 2013). "Puzzling the purpose of Australian literary magazines". The Monthly. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  30. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Editions". Meanjin. 16 December 2021. Archived from the original on 8 February 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  31. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Meanjin". Melbourne University Publishing. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  32. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.W. H. Wilde; Joy Hooton; Barry Andrews, eds. (1994). The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 525. ISBN 019553381X.
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."People". Meanjin. 16 June 2015. Archived from the original on 1 January 2026. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  34. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Green to Leave Meanjin". Books+Publishing. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  35. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Anatolitis appointed Meanjin editor". Books+Publishing. 10 October 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  36. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Meanjin announces Eugenia Flynn and Bridget Caldwell-Bright as Guest Editors of First Nations edition". Meanjin. 2 February 2023. Retrieved 29 April 2024.

Further reading

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