AustLit

'A little while ago a friend of mine shared an anecdote concerning her father when he was her age and attending the University of Sydney. In the retelling, he’s marching alongside a misaligned peer—a young politician—who objects to (then) recent cuts to education funding. The image is not unlike that of a scene written and directed by Shonda Rhimes (a truly dramatic TV-series concept that must be optioned immediately). The contingent press forward, bunched up together as they riot and pound the campus pavement, righteously projecting their voices outward. It’s a typical slice of Australian #stupol history and still resonates. At family dinners her father now shares a very different sentiment: ‘If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain.’' (Introduction)

'The first ever real ‘direct action’ I properly participated in occurred at the front end of 2017 — a planned occupation of the streets and gates surrounding the Villawood Detention Centre. In order to apprehend or stall the deportation of a man whose brother had been given asylum without him, activists kept watch over every entrance 24/7. Many of us were inexperienced, idealistic. Once a decision has been made, all you can really do is protest.' (Introduction)

'Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased may lack depth in its examination of LGBTQIA torment, but its handling of family dynamics and the performances of Luke Hedges and Nicole Kidman are cause for redemption.' (Introduction)

'For a generation of boys, the youth lit canon often centralised visceral physicality over true intimacy and vulnerability. But for today’s young queer readers grappling with questions of gender and desire, a new canon is emerging that captures more nuanced and diverse ways to come of age.' (Introduction)

'The colour of this fantasy seems to me to reflect something closer to cream than anything else – cream, yes, because that is the colour of the walls I remember even if it was not correct. That was not important. It was the essence: cream, because even the air was delicious and sweet and perfect, and cream because you were smoother than ever. Almost anything you were was a trigger, something that rolled off my tongue and licked the air like it was confectionery.' (Introduction)