If Pope Leo joined Trump’s Board of Peace, it would compromise centuries of ‘positive neutrality’Darius von Guttner Sporzynski, Australian Catholic University
Beach swimming was once banned in Australia. How did it become a treasured pastime?Anna Clark, University of Technology Sydney
Dexies, doof and depth: The Paris End’s long-form journalism moves from Substack to pagePer Henningsgaard, Curtin University
‘I saw the horrors’: how Australian journalists bore witness to the HolocaustFay Anderson, Monash University
In his last book, Julian Barnes circles big ideas and reflects on his shortcomingsPatrick Flanery, Adelaide University
Australia once enshrined white superiority. These 10 trailblazers helped shift our attitudes to raceAngela Woollacott, Australian National University
Writers Victoria has been defunded – but writers’ centres are ‘fundamental’ to literary cultureAngela Glindemann, RMIT University
Best books of 2025: our experts share their picksJames Ley, The Conversation and Jo Case, The Conversation
Would you use AI to break writer’s block? We asked 5 expertsNicola Redhouse, The University of Melbourne; Ariella Van Luyn, University of New England; Christopher Rees, University of New England; Sally Breen, Griffith University, and Seth Robinson, The University of Melbourne
It takes many ghosts to make a story: how Maggie O'Farrell’s Hamnet takes from – and mistakes – ShakespeareKate Flaherty, Australian National University and Amy Walters, Australian National University
Guide to the classics: death-haunted masterpiece The Blind Owl shadows the decline of modern IranHossein Asgari, Adelaide University
Lainie Anderson’s novels about a real pioneering policewoman invite us to play historical detectiveSue Turnbull, University of Wollongong
Friday essay: weirdly old-fashioned and wildly uneven – David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest at 30Julian Murphet, Adelaide University
Ruled by engineers: how China gets things done, leaving the US in the dustMark Beeson, University of Technology Sydney
Trump wants to send troops into Mexico. The land grab of the Mexican-American War makes this ‘politically untenable’Philip Johnson, Flinders University
‘Masterclass in poor governance’: what was the board’s role in the end of Adelaide Writers’ Week?Kim Goodwin, The University of Melbourne
As authors abandon Adelaide Writers’ Week after cancelling of Randa Abdel-Fattah, is free speech in tatters?Denis Muller, The University of Melbourne
Want to get your teens reading books this summer? 7 teens share their favourite books in 2025Kate Douglas, Flinders University
Chris Wallace-Crabbe was a poet of international renown, a beloved teacher and a generous manDavid McCooey, Deakin University
Friday essay: in our age of AI and constant crisis, real-life community is powerful and preciousAmy Thunig-McGregor, University of Technology Sydney
Friday essay: racism, misogyny and culture wars: Zadie Smith and Anne Enright help us make sense of troubling timesBelinda Castles, University of Sydney
Friday essay: I was enthralled by Crime and Punishment at 14. Rereading it after 60 years, I’m still awedKevin John Brophy, The University of Melbourne
Friday essay: how societies evolved into fear-dominated goliaths – then collapsedJohn Long, Flinders University
Friday essay: experts are predicting a stock market crash – what does 1929 have to teach us?Alexander Howard, University of Sydney
What were books like in ancient Greece and Rome?Konstantine Panegyres, The University of Western Australia
An attack on left-wing, literary ‘culture police’ displays the flawed thinking it aims to critiqueDan Dixon, University of Sydney
Geoffrey Robertson believes international law is failing us – but the solutions are unclearPaul Taucher, Murdoch University
Is democracy the worst form of government – apart from all the others? We asked 5 expertsJames Ley, The Conversation
One UK journalist’s close access to Hitler carries a warning about Trump’s media restrictionsAlexander Howard, University of Sydney
How the internet became enshittified – and how we might be able to deshittify itCharles Barbour, Western Sydney University
Terror, androgyny and benevolence: a brief history of angels in ChristianityPhilip C. Almond, The University of Queensland
Heat, terror and resistance: Henry Reynolds’ bold, new book takes a top-end view of Australian historyRaymond Evans, Griffith University
The Dixson family were great Australian philanthropists, but their wealth was built on slave labourJoel Barnes, The University of Queensland; University of Sydney
Gough Whitlam believed John Kerr’s wife played a key role in The Dismissal. Did she?Alexis Bergantz, RMIT University
A history of Australia’s Nazi hunters reveals a troubling tolerance for war criminalsKristy Campion, Charles Sturt University
Like Jane Eyre, I’ve been seen as unconventional and abnormal. I’m autistic – is she too?Chloe Riley, Australian National University
Norse mythology brims with fierce, fabulous women. Here are 5 of my favouritesLisa Bennett, Flinders University
Aristotle’s Politics has wisdoms and warnings for our age of tech utopias and inequalityMatthew Sharpe, Australian Catholic University
100 years on, T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men is a poem for our populist momentLuke Johnson, University of Wollongong
What’s cooler than sex, drugs and pashing models? I found out from 3 rock memoirsLiz Evans, University of Tasmania
Celia Paul and Stephanie Radok have devoted their lives to making art – and writing about itCarol Lefevre, University of Adelaide
Olivia Nuzzi didn’t report what she knew about RFK Jr – could she have stopped his rise?Kate Cantrell, University of Southern Queensland
‘How should I cast my soul?’ Patti Smith’s intimate new memoir is a quest for her true selfLiz Evans, University of Tasmania
3 Australian poets explore sites of memory and history – with a degree of playCraig Billingham, UNSW Sydney
An Antarctic ‘polar thriller’ and a neurodivergent novel imagine a climate changed futureCaitlin Macdonald, University of Sydney
Kate Mildenhall’s fast-paced thriller The Hiding Place skewers middle-class pretensionsJessica Gildersleeve, University of Southern Queensland
Grim, funny and unremitting, Evelyn Araluen’s The Rot is a book attuned to dark timesThomas H. Ford, La Trobe University
Merlinda Bobis explores four generations of colonialism and violence in the PhillipinesMichelle Hamadache, Macquarie University
The daring women artists of last century were often sidelined as muses. A new book celebrates their brillianceJoanna Mendelssohn, The University of Melbourne
Andrew Pippos’ The Transformations: a touching story of love, loss and newspapersKevin John Brophy, The University of Melbourne
Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, set in 1984, is translated for the Trump era in One Battle After AnotherAlexander Howard, University of Sydney
What is Hanukkah and how is it celebrated?David Slucki, Monash University; Idan Dershowitz, Monash University, and Yaffa Bart, Monash University
The Life of Violet: three unearthed early stories where Virginia Woolf’s genius first sparks to lifeJade French, Loughborough University
Does Nick Cave’s Death of Bunny Munro critique misogyny – or does it hate women?Liz Evans, University of Tasmania
‘There’s no such thing as someone else’s children’ – Omar El Akkad bears witness to the destruction of Gaza and the West’s quiet assentClare Corbould, Deakin University
20 best New Zealand books of the 21st century: as chosen by expertsFinlay Macdonald, The Conversation; Jo Case, The Conversation; Matt Garrow, The Conversation, and Suzy Freeman-Greene, The Conversation
Friday essay: weirdly old-fashioned and wildly uneven – David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest at 30Julian Murphet, Adelaide University
