Friday essay: How to Sell a Genocide exposes the double standards of reporting on GazaJeff Sparrow, The University of Melbourne
Jeff Bezos says poetry without rhyming is easy – but it’s not that simpleBronwyn Lea, The University of Queensland
Patricia Cornwell survived her parents’ breakdown, psychosis and neglect by creating her own worldsSue Turnbull, University of Wollongong
How to Dress for Old Age offers personal reflections and important lessons for facing life’s last actCatharine Coleborne, University of Newcastle
Guide to the classics: Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World pioneered speculative fiction, 400 years agoDonna Mazza, Edith Cowan University
Reddit short stories are popular in Hollywood – joining a long trend. Here are 5 of the best short stories on filmKaren Hands, University of the Sunshine Coast; Ginna Brock, University of the Sunshine Coast, and Jane Frank, University of the Sunshine Coast
Pope Leo warns of AI’s risks to humanity in his first encyclicalNiusha Shafiabady, Australian Catholic University; Darius von Guttner Sporzynski, Australian Catholic University, and Sandie Cornish, Australian Catholic University
Poet, playwright, spy: Stephen Greenblatt conjures the brilliant life of Christopher MarloweKate Flaherty, Australian National University
Errol Flynn’s biographer calls him the greatest heartthrob of his time – but racist and a rapist tooDennis Altman, La Trobe University
Agatha Christie: what made the world’s bestselling author so successful? Here’s a clueGill Plain, University of St Andrews
Friday essay: I modelled myself on my sister – but why are storytellers obsessed with sisterhood?Edwina Preston, The University of Melbourne
Patrick Radden Keefe investigates Russian money in London through a teenager’s suspicious deathMatthew Ricketson, Deakin University
Famesick: Lena Dunham makes us laugh about a dream job turned brutal nightmareLiz Evans, University of Tasmania
Yesteryear: is this viral novel’s time travelling tradwife really ‘perfect at being alive’?Rachel Williamson, University of Canterbury
More than 1 in 3 Australian adults are functionally illiterate. How can we fix this?Genevieve McArthur, Australian Catholic University
How to read the classics in an age of distraction – and 3 short books to get you goingJohanna Harris, Australian Catholic University
Do we absorb information better on paper, rather than screens? It depends on the screenErik D Reichle, Macquarie University and Lili Yu, Macquarie University
Does your child only read graphic novels? That’s OK – it’s helping them build literacy skillsJudith Ridge, University of Tasmania and Robyn Cox, University of Tasmania
Teens came first at Australia’s world-leading Centre For Youth Literature – until it was axedBec Kavanagh, The University of Melbourne
Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, winner of the International Booker Prize, reveals a Taiwan many Australians have never seenMei-fen Kuo, Macquarie University
What do the Commonwealth Writers Prize AI allegations mean for prizes – and short stories?Julian Novitz, Swinburne University of Technology
International Booker Prize 2026: heartbreak, brutality, shapeshifting – six experts review the nomineesVinicius de Carvalho, King's College London; Boriana Alexandrova, University of York; Eva Cheuk-Yin Li, King's College London; Karolina Watroba, University of Edinburgh; Marion Gibson, University of Exeter, and Narguess Farzad, SOAS, University of London
Violence, loss and bright threads of kindness: your guide to the 2026 Stella shortlistJen Webb, University of Canberra
Friday essay: Aboriginal Anzacs fought for Australia, but returned home to racism. It fuelled their activismJohn Maynard, University of Newcastle
Friday essay: John Keane on demagogues, despots and the rise of ‘phantom democracies’John Keane, University of Sydney
Friday essay: how to have brave conversations in an age of loud moral certaintyFarid Zaid, Monash University and Daniel Heller, Monash University
Friday essay: why radical ideas from psychoanalysis are my guiding light in a chaotic worldNicola Redhouse, The University of Melbourne
Australia’s frighteningly unequal funding system favours private schools, argues Jane Caro. How can we fix it?Elisa Di Gregorio, Adelaide University
Dignity and resolve: Francesca Albanese’s When the World Sleeps humanises Palestinian livesMartin Kear, University of Sydney
Homeless camps are rising as affordability falls. It’s a problem Australia has solved beforeRachel Gallagher, Griffith University
Gallipoli has 4 lessons for the Strait of Hormuz crisisMeighen McCrae, Australian National University
Finland’s president Alexander Stubb has some ideas to save the international order – and ourselvesMark Beeson, University of Technology Sydney
Searching for a ‘technofix’ to climate change has many dangers. Could radical humility save the planet?Nanda Jarosz, University of Sydney
Why a 1,500-year-old monastic rulebook still challenges what it means to live a meaningful lifeEd Krčma, University of East Anglia and Jessica Barker, Courtauld Institute of Art
Chernobyl at 40: the lies, the loss and why we can’t let goKate Cantrell, University of Southern Queensland and Jessica Gildersleeve, University of Southern Queensland
The Iranian revolution transformed global extremism, replacing left-wing radicalism with religionAlexander Howard, University of Sydney
Guide to the classics: ‘all for one, and one for all’ – the enduring appeal of The Three MusketeersDarius von Guttner Sporzynski, Australian Catholic University
Friendship, honey and the simple life: 100 years of Winnie-the-PoohElizabeth Hale, University of New England
George Eliot is best known for Middlemarch, but she also wrote an early work of science fictionJessica Murray, The University of Western Australia
How Norman Lindsay wrote the The Magic Pudding to critique ‘Australian values’ – inspired by NietzscheJohn Uhr, Australian National University
Far-right ‘gangster morality’ and the search for meaning: why you should read CamusMatthew Sharpe, Australian Catholic University
Siri Hustvedt’s powerful memoir of losing her husband Paul Auster will make you cryJulienne van Loon, The University of Melbourne
The Philippines’ brutal history informs Glenn Diaz’s powerful political novelSam Ryan, University of Tasmania
Periodic Bitch: PMDD may be a ‘life curse’, but this memoir reveals its stigma as the real horrorKate Cantrell, University of Southern Queensland
Shipwrecked in a time-loop – Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume plays a long gameDavid McCooey, Deakin University
Girls in bands: two 90s rock icons on romance, ruthlessness and boring menLiz Evans, University of Tasmania
Kathryn Heyman’s novel about dying and difficult families resists easy consolationsCatherine McKinnon, University of Wollongong
Fiona Wright’s Kill Your Boomers sees the dark joke in Australia’s housing crisisBrigid Magner, RMIT University
Unraveling the mystery of an unconventional mother undone by war, separation and loveRuth Balint, UNSW Sydney
Romy Ash’s novel imagines the next pandemic as an eerily beautiful mushroom diseaseJane Rawson, University of Tasmania
Ellena Savage’s snappy novel exposes a ruined utopia – but you might need a humanities degree to read itAmber Gwynne, The University of Queensland
Words can’t save a life – but they can capture it. Debra Adelaide farewells friend Gabrielle CareyJen Webb, University of Canberra
Poetry for an anxious world: 5 experts share poems of grief, hope and restorationJames Ley, The Conversation and Jo Case, The Conversation
Mowing the lawn: the colonial ghosts haunting our suburban ritualRichard Shaw, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University
Fight Club at 30: toxic masculinity handbook or clever takedown of capitalism?Simon Copland, Australian National University
Kay Scarpetta led the trend for serial killer hunters. I love crime heroines – but she leaves me coldSue Turnbull, University of Wollongong
Publishing tips, poetry and witty takes on classics: 6 of the best Australian literary podcastsCaitlin Macdonald, University of Sydney
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
Working with First Nations: Delivering on the Priority ReformsAustralia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG)