Australian Literary Magazines as Sites of Dissent

In this essay, I argue that Australian literary magazines are - and should be - primarily sites of dissent. But I also recognize that literary magazines sit on the fringes of the Australian national conversation and that relatively few Australian readers engage with them. I see dissent as a constructive and essential element of Australia's imperfect capitalist liberal democracy and civil society and as a constructive and essential element of the way Australians seek to understand - or avoid seeking to understanding - the place of Australia in the world. Literary magazines rightly sit on fringes, and yet their minimal exposure to the mainstream is troubling and limiting.