Griffith Review

The award-winning Griffith REVIEW provides an original, high quality forum where Australian writers, thinkers and leaders present substantial expositions on emerging issues.

Griffith REVIEW is personal, political (un) predictable; Australia’s best conversation. It helps distinguish Griffith University as a multi-disciplinary creative and intellectual centre.

Griffith REVIEW was established in 2004 to provide a space otherwise lacking in Australian media for long form essays, memoir, reportage and topical fiction could be published. Writers guidelines are available here. It does not shy away from complexity, but presents it in an engaging and accessible manner. It has the feel of a multi-layered conversation, stretching the topic in sometimes unexpected directions.

It is published by Griffith University in conjunction with ABC Books.

Griffith REVIEW is a themed quarterly book, a website and ongoing events in major capital centres and regions, particularly the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Byron Bay Writers Festivals. It has won major national awards for essays advancing public debate, such as the Victorian Premiers Award, is regularly syndicated in major newspapers and forms the basis of ABC Radio broadcasts. Essays and stories are regularly included in Best Australian Essays, Best Australian Stories. An anthology of the memoirs which explores life from birth to death was published as A Revealed Life – Australian Writers and their journey in memoir was published by Books in 2007.

In 2006-2007 Griffith REVIEW has anticipated and informed the public debate that has subsequently developed on education, climate change, freedom of speech, economic divides, engagement with Asia, generational conflict, health and the future of Indigenous policy.

The lead essay of up to 20,000 words is crucial and frames the topic explored by other writers who present a wide range of other perspectives. This fleshes out the complexity of the subject with high quality writing. Lead essays over this time were written by Noel Pearson, Frank Moorhouse, Bill Bowtell, Glyn Davis, Michael Wesley, Creed O’Hanlon, David Burchell, Murray Sayle, which can be accessed by clicking on the links.

Julianne Schultz is the editor of Griffith REVIEW and a professor in the Centre for Public Culture and Ideas at Griffith University. She has written extensively about the media and is the author of Reviving the Fourth Estate: Democracy, accountability and the media (Cambridge University Press, 1998), Steel City Blues (Penguin, 1985) and the librettos Black River and Going into Shadows.

Griffith REVIEW Editions

1. Insecurity in the New World Order. Major Contributors: John Birmingham, Eva Sallis, Frank Moorhouse, Chalmers Johnson, Geraldine Doogue

2. Dreams of Land. Major Contributors: Geraldine Brookes, Noel Pearson, Mathew Condon, Jack Waterford, Mark McKenna, Ramona Koval

3. Webs of Power. Major Contributors: Mungo MacCallum, Gideon Haigh, Gerard Henderson, Frank Moorhouse, Andrew O’Hagan, Anne Coombs, Quentin Dempster, The Sandman, Jock Given

4. Making Perfect Bodies. Major Contributors: Robyn Williams, Donald Horne, Paul Chadwick, Elspeth Probyn, Inez Baranay, Michael Wilding

• Shortlisted for the Science Writing category in the 2004 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. (link to intro)

5. Addicted to Celebrity. Major Contributors: David Malouf, Gideon Haigh, Catharine Lumby, Peter Beattie, Margaret Simons, Bruce Page

6. Our Global Face: Inside the Australian Diaspora. Major Contributors: Patrick McCaughey, Thomas Shapcott, Peter Skrzynecki, Brian Castro, Anna Haebich, Arnold Zable

7. The Lure of Fundamentalism. Major Contributors: Murray Sayle, Hugh Mackay, Nick Earls, Margot O’Neill, Barry Hill, Michael Wesley

• Randa Abdel-Fattah’s essay ‘Living in a material world’ won The Alfred Deakin Prize for the Essay Advancing Public Debate in the 2005 Victoria Premier’s Literary Awards

8. People Like Us. Major Contributors: Margaret Simons, Frank Moorhouse, Merle & Singrid Thornton, Robyn Williams, Melissa Lucashenko, Martin Krygier, David Burchell

• Margaret Simons essay ‘Ties that bind’ was shortlisted for The John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the 2006 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

9. Up North: Myths, Threats & Enchantment. Major Contributors: Robyn Davidson, David Malouf, Murray Sayle, Mathew Condon, Creed O’Hanlon, Regina Ganter, Dewi Anggraeni, Peter Stanly, Bob Wurth

10. Family Politics. Major Contributors: Sandy McCutcheon, Georgia Blain, Robert Hillman, Joanna Mendelssohn, Sylvia Lawson, Creed O’Hanlon, Carmel Bird

11. Getting Smart. Major Contributors: Glyn Davis, Margaret Simons, Jeff McMullen, Inez Baranay, Gideon Haigh

12. Hot Air: How Nigh’s the End?. Major Contributors: Murray Sayle, Robyn Williams, Peter Doherty, Mather Condon, Ian Lowe, Geoffrey Blainey, Melissa Lucashenko.

• Murray Sayle’s essay ‘Overloading Emoh Ruo: The rise and rise of hydrocarbon civilisation’ was shortlisted for the 2006 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Science Journalism, received a commendation in the 2006 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and was shortlisted in 2 categories for the 2006 Queensland Premier’s Awards (Science Writing and Literary or Media Work Advancing Public Debate).

13. [http://www3.griffith.edu.au/01/griffithreview/past_editions.php?id=341 The Next Big Thing. Major Contributors: Creed O’Hanlon, Julienne van Loon, Ryan Heath, Tara June Winch, Will Elliot.

14. The Trouble with Paradise. Major Contributors: Frank Moorhouse, Martin Amis, Chalmers Johnson, Allan Gyngell, John Kinsella, Kirsty Sword Gusmao.

• Frank Moorhouse’s essay ‘The write in a time of terror’ is shortlisted for The Alfred Deakin Prize for The Essay Advancing Public Debate in the 2007 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. PEN Keneally Award

15. Divided Nation. Major Contributors: David Burchell, Meera Atkinson, David Peetz, Anna Haebich, Julienne van Loon, Anita Heiss, Randa Adbel-Fattah

• Meera Atkinson’s essay ‘The exiled child’ shortlisted for the Alfred Deakin Prize for The Essay Advancing Public Debate in the 2007 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

16. Unintended Consequences. Major Contributors: Noel Pearson, Murray Sayle, Rolf de Heer, Glyn Davis, Michael Wesley, James Halford, Margaret Simons, Chris Wallace, Lee Tulloch

• Noel Pearson’s essay ‘White guilt, victimhood and the quest for a radical centre’ has been shortlisted for The Alfred Deakin Prize for The Essay Advancing Public Debate in the 2007 Victorian Premier’e Literary Awards. Also from this edition, Bernie Mathew’s story “Reap as you sow” is shortlisted for the Freelance Journalism Award in the 2007 Queensland Media Awards.

17. Staying Alive. Major Contributors: Bill Bowtell on the success of the Australian model for dealing with HIV AIDS and the lessons for the world, Frank Brennan, Donna Mulhearn, Michael Wilding, Susan Varga, Diego de Leo, Peter Browne 18. In the Neighbourhood. Major Contributors : Michael Wesley, Nicholas Jose, Brian Castro, Jane Camens, Michael Vidikiotis, Larry Buttrose, Bei Ling, Oouyang Yu