Essay Archives

WALK INTO ANY newsagent or bookshop. Scan quickly and then let your eyes rest on the racks and racks...

IN THE MEDIA, we do love a trend. If one doesn't exist, in fact, we'll make it up. Two...

Start off with a young woman walking up the steps to her apartment building, juggling handbag, computer, briefcase and...

By Marion Halligan

WE WAITED IN the cold all morning. It was a Saturday in early June, only a few days before...

By Catharine Lumby

I AM NOT the greatest fan of the obligatory cultural tours that are increasingly anchored in the program of...

By Huib Schippers

WHEN MILTON, IN Lycidas, tells us that "Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise/ To scorn...

By David Malouf

'WHAT IS IT about music education in Queensland?' This question is often asked when Australian music educators gather. Everyone...

By Julie Ballantyne

UNDERSTANDING OF ART can no longer be limited – as it often appears to be in the popular imagination...

The critical attitude Strikes many people as unfruitful. That is because they find the state Impervious to their criticism. But what in this...

By Robyn Archer

TWO THOUGHTS SPRANG to mind as I dangled from the top of New Zealand's tallest building one sunny November...

By Ryan Heath

THERE WAS A time when, if asked what I did, I could reply without hesitation that I was an...

By Kim Mahood

THE PUSH FOR war in Iraq went in to overdrive in September 2002, six months before the first American...

By Peter Manning