Ren Wyld

Today is the last day of the Future Fellowship that I’ve been doing for the last five years. If any of the work we’ve done in thinking about queer in Indigenous lives, creativity, the colonial project of gender and everything else has had an impact on your work or life I’d love to hear from you.

Congrats

Hi everyone! We've got a bunch of lovely past Southerly issues (and our current issue!) that would look fabulous on your bookshelf (or coffee table)!
Please consider purchasing a copy on our website, especially any issues in this photograph.
Your support means the world to us!
Love,
Southerly team

I've just finished reading Uruguayan-Australian author Natalia Figueroa's Hailstones Fell Without Rain. An impressive debut novel

Best books of 2025: our experts share their picks We found out the favourite 2025 books of 35 expert readers – and the Books & Ideas team shares our own picks, too.

What's your best book of 2025? If you share today, you might end up in our newsletter tomorrow.

(Also, I just want to know!)

theconversation.com/best-books-o...

Feel like a winner? One lucky person will receive an EPIC Magabala Books x Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council Aboriginal Corporation package - just in time for Christmas!

Head over to our Instagram or Facebook accounts for the deets 👀

Good news about Aaron's second book. Seeing Torres Strait Islander writers finally getting books published over the last few years has been exciting.... and it's just the beginning.

Australian kids could always run their own servers/communities on Mastodon, and set their own rules for moderation - keeping all the Malcom Roberts out.
PS this new social media ban for under 16s is ridiculous. Raised on technology, they'll figure it out quickly

Oh, and Jasmin's book is the 1st YA novel written by a Torres Strait Islander writer. It's been an exciting year of firsts

> However, there's some recent books that could have been included. Such as Lenora Thaker's debut novel (which is the 1st novel by a Torres Strait Islander author!) and Growing up Torres Strait Islander in Australia (1st anthology, edited by Samantha Fuller). Plus your co-authored book, of course.

Thomas Mayo has one of his books on that list. Some of the anthologies have poems, fiction & non fiction by Torres Strait Islanders; inc one edited by Jasmin McGaughy, who's debut novel was released this year. More emerging Torres Strait Islander writers to be published next year, which is exciting>

Literary journals launch editing, writing & illustration careers in Australia, including First Nations. Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Island, Griffith, Westerly - to name just a few. And exciting new ones are emerging. Most literary journals desperately need support to survive. So buy, read, donate

And Australia’s oldest literary journal is still breathing > Southerly. It was an honour to guest co-edit the last issue with Roanna Gonsalves, and help it rise from the ashes. Lots of work from First Nations writers. Alongside Palestinian and other writers living in Australia southerlylitmag.com.au

Splinter Journal Splinter is a literary journal that is sharp and hard to ignore.

Led by Farrin Foster & steering group, newish Splinter Journal includes First Nations writers in every issue. (A partnership between SA unis & Writers SA). Latest edition is all First Nations writing (international). Guest edited by emerging writer Janalli Jones (Gunai).
splinterjournal.com#about

About — Sovereign Texts: Journal of First Peoples Literature

Looking forward, in 2026 Sovereign Text Journal will become THE place for First Nations literarture - academic, fiction, poetry, non fiction + Managed by a dream team of First Nations writers, editors and experts in literature. #AusLit
www.sovereigntextsjournal.com/about

Recently MUP quietly released First Nations Writing: Meanjin 1977 to today. Co-editors Jeanine Leane & Dan Bourchier selected First Nations pieces published in Meanjin that represented "Writing about us, by us". Meanjin is gone but we're still writing/storytelling

www.mup.com.au/books/meanji...

Profanity.accountant.australia

Hey mate in 1500 posts you only wrote "fuck" 1,000 times. Are you even Australian cunt? Now get out there and do better mate.

White text on a black background. It reads: #WhoAreYou? We are the wet laundry hanging on the fences of shelter schools. We are the black tiles of aid organizations. We are the layers of clothing helpless against a storm. We are the shivering of a swaddled baby. We are the windows shattered by the pressure of missiles. We are the sound of tent nylon when the wind hits it. We are the warm-hearted ones in cold world. Save what's left of us. - Abdullah Akkad

Black and white photo image, or sepia tones, of a young man outdoors near a fence, with one hand up to his cheek or his ear. A sparse tree is in the background. He has a beard, neatly trimmed hair and a stocky build.

#WhoAreYou?
We are the wet laundry hanging on the fences of shelter schools.

We are the black tiles of aid organizations.

Wording contd. in the image.

Abdullah is a writer. He's recovering from surgery and he's gotten almost no donatlons at all in the last 6 weeks.
gofund.me/9b40645f5

Insta keeps showing me ads targetted at thin-lipped post menopausal white women. Feels like only yesterday I was getting bombarded with products for toddlers. Next week it will be funeral plans, no doubt

'Women are afraid to get pregnant': Fighting mercury poisoning from illegal gold mining in Brazil Munduruku people in Brazil are battling miscarriages and loss of sight and sound, a community leader tells Sky News.

This is genocide.
'Women are afraid to get pregnant': Fighting mercury poisoning from illegal gold mining in Brazil. news.sky.com/story/women-...

Thanks

A stencil of a butterfly, and 4 prints on different papers

Waiting for them to dry. Turned out a bit odd, but (mostly) free drawn and bad eyesight, so not too concerned about imperfections. It's like a butterfly inside a butterfly. Or it has an aura? First time lino-printing since the late 70s.

Today marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a day to reaffirm commitment to justice, equality, and human rights.

Free Palestine Reading List for November 29 – December 5 (2025): publishersforpalestine.org/2025/11/29/f...

Sienna Blok presents workshops in different SA venues (often in wineries & breweries). Next one in January is animal themed. Pricey but includes material & takehome skills. www.siennablok.com/shop?utm_sou...

Five animals I’ve seen in my very suburban neighbourhood (within 5 minutes walk)
Shingleback/sleepy lizard
Pobblebonk frogs
Grey headed flying fox
Boobook owl (technically heard, not seen)
Koala

"The wild" is a daft idea.
5 animals I saw in my neighbourhood (Townsville example)

Snubfin dolphin (seen while at Kokoda Poo)
Bush stone-curlew (nest in the backyard)
Olive backed sunbird (nest on the front verandah)
Black flying fox (inside the house once)
Great bowerbird (bower down the street)

If I do ok with that print, I want to explore making more prints and include them in this experimental novel I'm writing. It's already a fusion of prose and poetry, so why not add b&w illustrations

I'm doing a linoprint workshop tomorrow. Not made a lino block for nearly 50 years, and drawing is not something I'm good at. But I need a creative challenge. The workshop's theme is Winged Insects. The novel I'm writing has a grotesque butterfly-man narrator, so I'll use him for inspiration. 1/2

If I saw a brown snake and a Great White Shark in my neighbourhood I would not help them onto the tram. But I wish we had left corridors for Indigenous plants, animals, bees, butterflies & birds. We're so much the poorer for never seeing them here.

😅