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Articles on Writing

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An echidna in the Western Granites at Jam Tree Gully. John Kinsella

Friday essay: species sightings

On his bush block in the WA wheatbelt, poet John Kinsella attempts habitat restoration and reflects on the responsibilities of the writer as a witness to species loss.
Even common knowledge isn’t immune. ledokolua/Shutterstock.com

Writing’s power to deceive

Reading something that sows doubt about a widely agreed-upon fact – even the election of George Washington as president – can have a profound effect.
Christina Ricci as Zelda and David Hoflin as F. Scott in the TV series Z: The Beginning of Everything (2015). Two films about Zelda’s life are currently underway, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Lawrence respectively. Amazon Studios, Killer Films, Picrow

Zelda Fitzgerald: a creative voice curtailed who speaks to our cultural moment

During her lifetime, Zelda Fitzgerald’s creativity and contribution to her husband’s work were woefully undervalued. Two new films will tell her story.
file ubn. Marin Dacos/VisualHunt

Understanding children’s mirror writing

Spontaneous mirror writing by both left- and right-handed children has long remained a mystery. Recent studies of brain processing and writing have led to an unexpected explanation.
Ernest Hemingway with a bull near Pamplona, Spain in 1927, two years before ‘A Farewell to Arms’ would be published. Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

How a young Ernest Hemingway dealt with his first taste of fame

A newly published batch of Ernest Hemingway’s letters could change the way we think about the author’s influences, relationships with other writers and views on race.
A relief at the ancient Persian city of Persepolis (now in modern Iran), including inscriptions in cuneiform, the world’s oldest form of writing. Diego Delso/Wikimedia

Friday essay: the recovery of cuneiform, the world’s oldest known writing

Cuneiform was used for over 3,000 years in the Ancient Near East, but was only decoded in the 19th century. The writing form is still revealing amazing stories, from literature to mathematics.
In some Aboriginal communities, over 50% of adults say they do not have the literacy they need for everyday tasks. Literacy for Life Foundation/Adam Sharman

To lift literacy levels among Indigenous children, their parents’ literacy skills must be improved first

The children who are least likely to attend school regularly – and do well – grow up in households where the adults themselves have very poor literacy skills.
Writing has never been easy, but sending writers out to find new ideas and people might be one way to help. Shutterstock.com

The best way to support writers is to feed them new ideas

Writers like Frank Moorhouse and Ben Eltham have proposed new long-term fellowships to support writing. But a better way may be more smaller grants, offering opportunities for travel.
Writer Solita Solano and Djuna Barnes in Paris, 1920s. Wikipedia Commons

Djuna Barnes: the ‘lesbian’ writer who rejected lesbianism

Unlike earlier lesbian and gay movements whose politics depended on visible identities, queer theory grew out of a critique of this – and perhaps that’s where Djuna Barnes sits.

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