Shannon Burns is a writer, critic and academic from Adelaide. His work has appeared in the Monthly, Meanjin, Australian Book Review, and the Sydney Review of Books. His memoir, Childhood, was released in October by Text Publishing.

If you could go anywhere tomorrow, where would it be, and why?
Greece. My grandparents emigrated from there in the 1950s, but I’ve never been, sadly. 

What’s your idea of hell?
Hell is predictable. Nothing changes. You are always the same, and the people around you are always the same. They say the same things, have the same thoughts, repeat the same gestures, stage the same hostilities or enthusiasms, over and over without end.

Not really. Hell is watching your children suffer, helplessly.

What do you consider the most specious virtue?
Chastity or purity. I want the promiscuous mess, especially in art.