Friday essay: long in the shadow of Freud, Carl Jung’s ideas are finding fresh relevance todayNick Haslam, The University of Melbourne
The Taliban wages war on women, but their voices roar on the page. Here are 5 essential books by Afghan women writersAyesha Jehangir, UNSW Sydney
If you win most literary prizes, you pay tax. If you win The Block, you don’t. How is this fair?Alice Grundy, Australian National University
‘AI will be the end of us’ – is Colm Tóibín right about the threat to creative writing?Tom Benn, University of East Anglia
Far-right ‘gangster morality’ and the search for meaning: why you should read CamusMatthew Sharpe, Australian Catholic University
A wild girl considers land rights and community in Eva Hornung’s ‘utterly gripping’ new novelShady Cosgrove, University of Wollongong
Friday essay: I thought a 5-day solo hike would reclaim a lost self. My menopausal body had other plansRachael Mead, Adelaide University
Blame John Howard for our housing and migration woes, says Amy Remeikis – but is he due some credit too?Judith Brett, La Trobe University
‘I am the enemy of death’: Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir is a remarkable tale of survivalCatherine Kevin, Flinders University
Best books of 2025: our experts share their picksJames Ley, The Conversation and Jo Case, The Conversation
‘A shadow on your art’: how do First Nations and culturally diverse authors feel about representation?Natalie Kon-yu, Victoria University and Emily Booth, University of Technology Sydney
Stories of beauty, mourning and ‘moments of being’ inspire in Claire Thomas’ On Not Climbing MountainsJessica Gildersleeve, University of Southern Queensland
Desperate, intelligent, irreverent: in Big Kiss, Bye-Bye, Claire-Louise Bennett breaks up with illusionsGeorgia Phillips, Adelaide University
There are more than 4.6 million food posts on TikTok alone. Why, then, do we still love cookbooks?Garritt C. Van Dyk, University of Waikato
A legacy to challenge and inspire: farewell Lionel Fogarty, poet and activistBenjamin Miller, University of Sydney and Dashiell Moore, University of Sydney
Publishing tips, poetry and witty takes on classics: 6 of the best Australian literary podcastsCaitlin Macdonald, University of Sydney
What is the future of Australia’s embattled writers festivals?Alice Grundy, Australian National University
Writers Victoria has been defunded – but writers’ centres are ‘fundamental’ to literary cultureAngela Glindemann, RMIT University
Friday essay: ‘red flags’ and ‘performative reading’ – what do our reading choices say about us?Julian Novitz, Swinburne University of Technology
Friday essay: I grew up fearing Queensland cops. Then I hung out with 17 Gold Coast detectivesSally Breen, Griffith University
Friday essay: Australia’s ‘quarry noir’ mines our anxiety about our biggest industryMeg Brayshaw, University of Sydney
Friday essay: weirdly old-fashioned and wildly uneven – David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest at 30Julian Murphet, Adelaide University
‘A lingering in stillness’: philosopher Byung-Chul Han on the radical power of gardeningThomas Moran, Adelaide University
Václav Havel’s 1978 essay The Power of the Powerless is eerily relevant todayDarius von Guttner Sporzynski, Australian Catholic 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
A history of assassination reveals how ‘targeted killings’ became an extension of state powerKevin Foster, Monash University
Australia once enshrined white superiority. These 10 trailblazers helped shift our attitudes to raceAngela Woollacott, Australian National University
‘I saw the horrors’: how Australian journalists bore witness to the HolocaustFay Anderson, Monash University
Beach swimming was once banned in Australia. How did it become a treasured pastime?Anna Clark, University of Technology Sydney
‘It could happen here’: Lord of the Flies took its lessons from Hitler’s Germany. They speak to nowAlexander Howard, University of Sydney
Guide to the classics: death-haunted masterpiece The Blind Owl shadows the decline of modern IranHossein Asgari, Adelaide University
Guide to the classics: 18th century novel Fantomina has a sexually curious, identity-switching heroineNicola Parsons, University of Sydney
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
Norse mythology brims with fierce, fabulous women. Here are 5 of my favouritesLisa Bennett, Flinders University
A knock-off Pynchon without the punchline: George Saunders’ Vigil falls flatTamlyn Avery, Adelaide University
In his last book, Julian Barnes circles big ideas and reflects on his shortcomingsPatrick Flanery, Adelaide University
China’s new literary star had 19 jobs before ‘writer’ – including bike courier and bakery apprenticeWanning Sun, University of Technology Sydney
Ali Smith’s Glyph is an exhilarating and excoriating follow-up to GliffSarah Annes Brown, Anglia Ruskin University
Friday essay: racism, misogyny and culture wars: Zadie Smith and Anne Enright help us make sense of troubling timesBelinda Castles, University of Sydney
Grim, funny and unremitting, Evelyn Araluen’s The Rot is a book attuned to dark timesThomas H. Ford, La Trobe University
An Antarctic ‘polar thriller’ and a neurodivergent novel imagine a climate changed futureCaitlin Macdonald, University of Sydney
Dexies, doof and depth: The Paris End’s long-form journalism moves from Substack to pagePer Henningsgaard, Curtin University
3 Australian poets explore sites of memory and history – with a degree of playCraig Billingham, UNSW Sydney
Kate Mildenhall’s fast-paced thriller The Hiding Place skewers middle-class pretensionsJessica Gildersleeve, University of Southern Queensland
Andrew Pippos’ The Transformations: a touching story of love, loss and newspapersKevin John Brophy, The University of Melbourne
I found Australian cult The Family’s left-behind library. Here’s what their books revealCaitlin Burns, University of Sydney
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
Does Nick Cave’s Death of Bunny Munro critique misogyny – or does it hate women?Liz Evans, University of Tasmania
The Life of Violet: three unearthed early stories where Virginia Woolf’s genius first sparks to lifeJade French, Loughborough 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
