Oh, happy days indeed. These are good times for readers and perhaps not so bad for writers either, as Griffith Review joins Meanjin and Heat in publishing work that might otherwise struggle to reach us. That such thoughtful and sometimes excellent writing should often be rewarded with risible rates of pay is less satisfactory, but it was ever thus, apart from the pennies from heaven offered so briefly, and controversially, by the conjunction of the Australia Council for the Arts and The Australian. The Council helps keep Meanjin and Heat afloat, and for this we should all be grateful. Griffith Review, however, is the result of a collaboration between the university and ABC Books, which is perhaps why, unlike the other two, it includes a subscription offer with the usual earnest blandishments of so-called highbrow journals (‘celebrates good writing and promotes public debate’). Still, judging by its second issue, Dreams of Land, no one could dispute the former claim, and, with the latter building up steam. the Griffith Review looks set to brighten our days for the foreseeable.
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