Alison Croggon
@alisoncroggon.bsky.social
I write words. Award-winning poet, novelist, critic, theatre writer. Arts editor The Saturday Paper. She/her. Living on unceded Yalukit-Willam Country.
http://www.alisoncroggon.com/
http://www.alisoncroggon.com/
"It is, when you consider it, a profoundly bleak view of romantic love. What are we to make of a supposed ingenue who grows up when she blinks at murder?" Me on the MTC adaptation of Rebecca www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea...
Shiels and Rabe shine in Anne-Louise Sarks’ Rebecca adaptation
Anne-Louise Sarks’ production of Daphne du Maurier’s subversive Rebecca swaps melodrama for an exploration of subjectivity.
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
October 17, 2025 at 11:57 PM
"It is, when you consider it, a profoundly bleak view of romantic love. What are we to make of a supposed ingenue who grows up when she blinks at murder?" Me on the MTC adaptation of Rebecca www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea...
Me on the Australian Ballet's joyous program of contemporary dance, Prism. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2025/10/04/t...
The Australian Ballet’s Prism has moments of pure joy
The Australian Ballet’s latest production, Prism, is a triple bill that brings moments of austere beauty and pure joy.
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
October 4, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Me on the Australian Ballet's joyous program of contemporary dance, Prism. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2025/10/04/t...
Reposted by Alison Croggon
What a ride. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...
Writing the book on Robodebt drove Rick Morton mad. Now it's won him $80k
Journalist Rick Morton didn't want to write a book about Robodebt. Now that book, Mean Streak, has won the Prime Minister's Literary Award for non-fiction.
www.abc.net.au
September 29, 2025 at 10:25 AM
What a ride. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...
"Gamergate never ended. It put on a tie and went to Washington."
I wrote about the firing of Alan Sepinwall, which is awful. And I tied it into what's happening all over in the media, why it's scary & what we can do to help. I used my words, but it's definitely Hulk Mo dialed up to 11, if that's a thing you would like to experience: www.moryan.com/on-the-firin...
September 16, 2025 at 10:21 PM
"Gamergate never ended. It put on a tie and went to Washington."
Reposted by Alison Croggon
A really great piece from @nickfeik.bsky.social.
Who killed Meanjin?
And why won’t Melbourne University Publishing engage with efforts to save it?
www.crikey.com.au
September 16, 2025 at 9:40 PM
A really great piece from @nickfeik.bsky.social.
Reposted by Alison Croggon
If Melbourne University Publishing doesn’t want to keep publishing Meanjin, they should hand over the journal to someone worthy of the responsibility. Me in The Conversation theconversation.com/the-decision...
The decision to close Meanjin misunderstands its wider importance. Australian culture deserves better
The decision to close Meanjin is the latest in a string of recent decisions that suggest universities are not safe harbours for priceless cultural institutions.
theconversation.com
September 8, 2025 at 7:46 AM
If Melbourne University Publishing doesn’t want to keep publishing Meanjin, they should hand over the journal to someone worthy of the responsibility. Me in The Conversation theconversation.com/the-decision...
Reposted by Alison Croggon
Why should accountants, human-resource managers & real-estate developers be interested in promoting Australian literature?
Opinion | Melbourne University Press says it shut down Meanjin for "purely financial reasons". Perhaps the university could have used some of its $273 million surplus to safeguard the seminal journal, @catrionamp.bsky.social writes.
Meanjin's 'financial' shutdown doesn't add up
www.crikey.com.au
September 8, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Why should accountants, human-resource managers & real-estate developers be interested in promoting Australian literature?
Well worth the read: a report on contemporary dance and censorship in Viktor Orbán's right wing Hungary, where independent artists are struggling to survive. A situation unsettlingly parallel with what is happening in Australia.
tanz.dance/the-city-of-...
tanz.dance/the-city-of-...
The city of open wounds - Shifting the arts
It was actually an inspiring few days in the Hungarian capital: invited by Lena Megyeri, a dance writer living in Budapest, I gained an insight into the deeper layers of the independent scene in Budap...
tanz.dance
September 7, 2025 at 4:35 AM
Well worth the read: a report on contemporary dance and censorship in Viktor Orbán's right wing Hungary, where independent artists are struggling to survive. A situation unsettlingly parallel with what is happening in Australia.
tanz.dance/the-city-of-...
tanz.dance/the-city-of-...
“In Della’s contradictions, Marillier portrays the internalisation of decades – nay, centuries – of brutal authoritarian power. Apartheid was, after all, only the culmination of a process that began with British and Dutch colonisation.” www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea...
South Africa’s apartheid era in focus in Destiny
Kirsty Marillier’s play Destiny captures both the menace of South Africa’s apartheid regime and the joyous energy it sought to stifle.
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
September 6, 2025 at 2:26 AM
“In Della’s contradictions, Marillier portrays the internalisation of decades – nay, centuries – of brutal authoritarian power. Apartheid was, after all, only the culmination of a process that began with British and Dutch colonisation.” www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea...
Reposted by Alison Croggon
So much I could say about the Robodebt Class Action re-settlement. But I am tired and in another time zone and will simply leave this here instead.
Commonwealth Ombudsman already smashed them and now not even govt's chosen auditing firm can say if the house of cards system of punitive mutual obligations is legal. Quite literally, they say, it is indefensible. Yet it persists. Even after Robodebt. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politic...
Exclusive: Government warned over ‘legal basis’ of welfare system
Despite being warned in 2018 that jobseekers were being exposed to unfair and excessive decisions, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations ‘chose to continue with the status quo’.
www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au
September 4, 2025 at 7:19 AM
So much I could say about the Robodebt Class Action re-settlement. But I am tired and in another time zone and will simply leave this here instead.
Reposted by Alison Croggon
It is easy to dismiss this as a single publication ending, but it’s a wider _infrastructural_ loss - and as Louise Adler says, easy to close, very hard to rebuild. These decisions have disastrous long term consequences beyond a single slice of the cultural sector
This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...
Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing
Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.
www.crikey.com.au
September 4, 2025 at 4:15 AM
It is easy to dismiss this as a single publication ending, but it’s a wider _infrastructural_ loss - and as Louise Adler says, easy to close, very hard to rebuild. These decisions have disastrous long term consequences beyond a single slice of the cultural sector
Reposted by Alison Croggon
I was Meanjin's Designer in the early 00s for years. Laid out and typeset every page and cover. Tiny budget but a great opportunity for young me and for those who came before and after. Even then Melbourne Uni was an existential threat. They'll save very little and lose a great deal through this.
This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...
Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing
Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.
www.crikey.com.au
September 4, 2025 at 5:01 AM
I was Meanjin's Designer in the early 00s for years. Laid out and typeset every page and cover. Tiny budget but a great opportunity for young me and for those who came before and after. Even then Melbourne Uni was an existential threat. They'll save very little and lose a great deal through this.
Reposted by Alison Croggon
The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers. Always meant so much to see my work there. Some of my best experiences of being edited. An entirely avoidable disaster.
September 4, 2025 at 12:56 AM
The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers. Always meant so much to see my work there. Some of my best experiences of being edited. An entirely avoidable disaster.
This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...
Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing
Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.
www.crikey.com.au
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 AM
This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...
Reposted by Alison Croggon
It would be a massive mistake for progressive folk to convince themselves the March for Australia was a bust, or can safely be ridiculed.
It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it.
More thoughts (un-paywalled) here:
www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...
It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it.
More thoughts (un-paywalled) here:
www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...
How mainstream media and politicians fuelled Australia's biggest far-right rally
Six takeaways from the March for Australia and why it should be a wake-up call.
www.lamestream.com.au
September 1, 2025 at 7:59 AM
It would be a massive mistake for progressive folk to convince themselves the March for Australia was a bust, or can safely be ridiculed.
It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it.
More thoughts (un-paywalled) here:
www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...
It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it.
More thoughts (un-paywalled) here:
www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...
Reposted by Alison Croggon
This is a set of screenshots of an astonishing "conversation" between writer @guinz.bsky.social and #ChatGPT.
"What ultimately transpired is the closest thing to a personal episode of Black Mirror this lifetime."
h/t @dranitaheiss.bsky.social
#writing #AI
/...
open.substack.com/pub/amandagu...
"What ultimately transpired is the closest thing to a personal episode of Black Mirror this lifetime."
h/t @dranitaheiss.bsky.social
#writing #AI
/...
open.substack.com/pub/amandagu...
Diabolus Ex Machina
This Is Not An Essay
open.substack.com
August 26, 2025 at 7:21 AM
This is a set of screenshots of an astonishing "conversation" between writer @guinz.bsky.social and #ChatGPT.
"What ultimately transpired is the closest thing to a personal episode of Black Mirror this lifetime."
h/t @dranitaheiss.bsky.social
#writing #AI
/...
open.substack.com/pub/amandagu...
"What ultimately transpired is the closest thing to a personal episode of Black Mirror this lifetime."
h/t @dranitaheiss.bsky.social
#writing #AI
/...
open.substack.com/pub/amandagu...
Reposted by Alison Croggon
Broken Forms by Franz Marc, 1914 #artbots #guggenheim
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137374
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137374
August 25, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Broken Forms by Franz Marc, 1914 #artbots #guggenheim
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137374
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137374
Reposted by Alison Croggon
#FreePalestine
BRI: 10-50K
MEL: 100K
SYD: ? ['tens of thousands']
CAN: 2K
HOB: 'thousands'
PER: 25K
ADE: 15K
plus numerous other towns & regional centres
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
BRI: 10-50K
MEL: 100K
SYD: ? ['tens of thousands']
CAN: 2K
HOB: 'thousands'
PER: 25K
ADE: 15K
plus numerous other towns & regional centres
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
Tens of thousands protest in nationwide action against war in Gaza
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations were held across the country today, with organisers claiming crowd numbers to be in the tens of thousands.
www.abc.net.au
August 24, 2025 at 6:55 AM
#FreePalestine
BRI: 10-50K
MEL: 100K
SYD: ? ['tens of thousands']
CAN: 2K
HOB: 'thousands'
PER: 25K
ADE: 15K
plus numerous other towns & regional centres
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
BRI: 10-50K
MEL: 100K
SYD: ? ['tens of thousands']
CAN: 2K
HOB: 'thousands'
PER: 25K
ADE: 15K
plus numerous other towns & regional centres
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...
Reposted by Alison Croggon
Absolutely epic crowd at the Melbourne march for Palestine
August 24, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Absolutely epic crowd at the Melbourne march for Palestine
“I must admit: I write this piece while starving – too hungry to think clearly, too weak to sit upright for long. I do not feel ashamed because my starvation is deliberate.” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
‘Too hungry to think, too weak to sit upright. Concentration slips away’: the struggle to stay focused as an academic in Gaza
It is hard to keep the mind sharp when the body is thin and dehydrated, but solidarity is teaching starving students their thoughts still matter
www.theguardian.com
August 19, 2025 at 12:23 PM
“I must admit: I write this piece while starving – too hungry to think clearly, too weak to sit upright for long. I do not feel ashamed because my starvation is deliberate.” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
What they're saying is that AI isn't profitable without outright theft and because other countries are already stealing we should too
Australia is stuck in the “worst of possible worlds” when it comes to AI and the use of local data, according to Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood, arguing that reforms to copyright law could help Australian companies compete globally and strengthen the local AI industry.
Read more:
Read more:
Copyright reform could power local AI industry
Productivity Commissioner says critics have missed the point.
ia.acs.org.au
August 19, 2025 at 7:41 AM
What they're saying is that AI isn't profitable without outright theft and because other countries are already stealing we should too
Reposted by Alison Croggon
As many have said from the beginning of this culture war
University of Sydney researchers have written an journal article arguing that Australia's teen social media ban risks hurting queer teens' health
"[The ban] demonstrates regulatory ignorance of the diversity of experiences"
insightplus.mja.com....
"[The ban] demonstrates regulatory ignorance of the diversity of experiences"
insightplus.mja.com....
August 19, 2025 at 7:10 AM
As many have said from the beginning of this culture war
Reposted by Alison Croggon
Worth remembering that Terence Stamp was the son of a ship's stoker.
Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path.
Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.
Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path.
Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.
August 18, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Worth remembering that Terence Stamp was the son of a ship's stoker.
Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path.
Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.
Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path.
Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.
Congrats Sydney, what a turnout ❤️
NEW: Incredible scenes in Sydney, Australia today as tens of thousands march for Gaza, demanding an end to the genocide.
#MarchForHumanity
(🎥 Ema Franklin)
#MarchForHumanity
(🎥 Ema Franklin)
August 3, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Congrats Sydney, what a turnout ❤️