ABOUT US

From 1998, and upuntil the current issue, Meanjin has been published quarterly by the Meanjin Company Ltd in association with the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne. From the next issue, scheduled for June 2008, this arrangement will have ceased, and the business of the magazine will be conducted by Melbourne University Publishing.

We wish to acknowledge the financial support of Arts Victoria, the Literature Fund of the Australia Council and our private donors.

Meanjin is supported by:

A Brief History of Meanjin

Meanjin was founded in Brisbane by Clem Christesen (the name, pronounced Mee-an-jin, is derived from an Aboriginal word for the finger of land on which central Brisbane sits) in 1940. It moved to Melbourne in 1945 at the invitation of the University of Melbourne, and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the university. It currently receives funding from the university, the Literature Fund of the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Victoria as well as receiving vital support through subscriptions and other sales.

During Christesen's 34-year editorial reign, the journal attracted contributions and debate from the leading figures in Australian letters, as well as providing an Australian audience for leading international writers including Arthur Miller, Anaïs Nin, Ezra Pound, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Dylan Thomas. In 1998, Christesen received the A. A. Phillips award from the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for a lifetime's outstanding achievement in Australian literary scholarship.

Known primarily as a literary magazine, Christesen ensured that Meanjin reflected the breadth of contemporary thinking, be it on literature, other art forms, or the broader issues of the times. This breadth has characterised Meanjin for more than 60 years, continuing under its six subsequent editors - Jim Davidson, Judith Brett, Jenny Lee, Christina Thompson, Stephanie Holt and Ian Britain. Meanjin has published some of the earliest serious discussion of subjects that have since attracted sustained attention, including migraton, television, suburbia, popular music, the Anzac tradition, Australia's 'cultural cringe', museums, drugs, food and travel.

While the main focus is on Australia, Meanjin also gives wide coverage to issues of global concern. Recent issues have explored our cultural and political connections with Asia and Britain, the historical and contemporary manifestations of psychology worldwide, the lives and works of various Australian and international artists and intellectuals.ß

You might notice a few changes in the next edition of Meanjin now that new editor Sophie Cunningham – Meanjin’s eighth editor - has taken the helm. In upcoming Meanjins expect more of an interaction between words and text. Expect to laugh. Expect writers you haven’t heard of before and to read established writers writing about unexpected things. The June edition includes the first of what will be regular author interviews, with author and poet Luke Davies. Writer and performance artist Fiona McGregor examines the concept of decadence; designer and typesetter Ampersand Duck tells us the story behind her design of the cover of Michelle de Kretser's The Lost Dog; we publish the first of several extracts from Kate Fielding's extraordinary graphic history of the colonization of Port Campbell, Their Hooks Find Hold Deep in Our Flesh (with illustrations by Mandy Ord). Memoir writing includes Vanessa Russell on growing up with the Christadelphians, and that pre-punk sixties musician, Pip Proud, tells us the story of himself.

Meanjin is a forum for reflection, speculation, opinion and fresh creativity in various literary and visual genres. Emerging writers and graphic artists appear alongside established ones. The general style and the tone of the articles are conversational rather than narrowly academic. Avoiding technical specialisation and specialist language, they seek to appeal to a broad educated audience of all generations.

Meanjin Staff

	Founding Editor	Clem Christesen
	Editor	Sophie Cunningham
	Office Manager	Mary Kennedy
	Poetry Editor	Judith Beveridge
	Designer	Chase & Galley
	Production	Norm Robinson
	Editorial Consultants	Richard McGregor Natalie Book
	Website Manager	Anthony Hunt
	Editorial Advisory Board	Louise Adler Kate Darian-Smith Mark Davis Ken Gelder Bruce Sims Deb Verhoeven Michael Webster Chris Wallace-Crabbe Angela Woods