Culture

Marjon Mossammaparast Gone Dark Not Sydney’s harbour lights where we dine at the Opera House in Bennelong who was a bridge, looking onto a bridge. A young couple is engaged taking the customary photo of another sparkler, a woman’s hand placed on …

Shaad D’Souza Once an incubator for Australia’s indie music scene, Triple J’s Hottest 100 is now little more than a tired listicle.

John Kinsella Megadeth’s self-titled farewell album rivals the band’s early thrash metal masterpieces.

James Bradley Towards the end of Departure(s), the now 80-year-old Julian Barnes reminds the reader this “will definitely be my last book – my official departure, my final conversation with you”. It’s a decision precipitated by his discovery, just …

Richard King As neologisms go, “enshittification” is not the most efficient specimen. Unlike, say, “nearlywed” or “broligarch”, it is neither wholly self-defining nor reminiscent of some other word to which it is related in meaning. Clearly the term has …

Andy Jackson It’s apt that Pam Brown’s latest book is titled Guess the Experience. There’s a slipperiness to these poems that revels in the allure of the cryptic and the everyday strange. They track the disrupted fluency of urban attention, where in …

Vyshnavee Wijekumar Melbourne’s new Australian Museum of Performing Arts opens with DIVA, a truly dazzling exhibition.

Kye Halford After three years out of the spotlight, singer-songwriter and bird enthusiast Stella Donnelly is back with a new album and fresh inspiration.

Chris Fleming Mr and Mrs Williams live on a large property where they raised their children. The children are gone and now there is too much house. At first, they liked spreading out, claiming rooms for their hobbies. Mr Williams designed the Gym, the Library and the …

Linda Jaivin Small towns can be both the most joyful places to grow up in – and the most stifling. George Kemp deftly captures this paradox early in Soft Serve when he describes the novel’s setting as “a place where one felt the excitement of a new …

Maria Takolander The more things change, the more they stay the same. While the aphorism might be well known, the fact that it was penned by a critic is less recognised. It’s relevant, as I want to use the aphorism to make an observation about literary culture. While …

j. taylor bell To read Ender Başkan’s debut poetry collection, Two Hundred Million Musketeers, is to perceive across generations. Purling in streams of braided narrative – 96 pages without a stanza break – it flows with a pointed accessibility. The saying …