Day: April 7, 2020

Australian Book Review, while congratulating successful applicants, deplores the Australia Council’s decision not to fund it and other literary magazines in the 2021–24 round. For the first time in decades, Australia’s national literary and arts review will not be funded by the federal government. 

• Peter Rose, ‘Australian Book Review’ editorial at https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/464-book-talk/6397-australian-book-review-and-the-australia-council?fbclid=IwAR2dtpLGKTf0kBFLg6aOuvQzCrW6ucFFYYL2atmfB9Pg0uTj4RxhihRpV7Q

Some of Australia’s most important and innovative arts organisations have lost their federal funding: the lifeline that they had counted on to try and ride out these extraordinary times. The list of organisations being “transitioned out” of Australia Council funding includes the Sydney Writers’ festival; many of the nation’s literary magazines, including Australian Book Review, Overland and the Sydney Review of Books, and a long string of theatre and dance companies, such as Sydney’s Australian Theatre for Young People, Adelaide’s Restless Dance Theatre, Perth’s Blue Room and Melbourne’s famous small theatre La Mama.

• By Ben Eltham, ‘The Guardian’, 6th April 2020. More at

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/apr/06/we-are-witnessing-a-cultural-bloodbath-in-australia-that-has-been-years-in-the-making