Jane Howard
@janeannehoward.bsky.social
Arts and culture editor, The Conversation Au+NZ
spamming submittable forms with essay submissions. lmk if you know somewhere which would like a weird essay about ptsd, mindfulness and james turrell lol
November 18, 2025 at 8:58 AM
spamming submittable forms with essay submissions. lmk if you know somewhere which would like a weird essay about ptsd, mindfulness and james turrell lol
November is a difficult month for me and truly never has anything done as much heavy lifting for me this time of year as how obsessed I am with Paddington the Musical www.vulture.com/article/padd...
I Would Die for the West End Paddington
Performed by two puppeteers, he deserves all the marmalade sandwiches in the world.
www.vulture.com
November 14, 2025 at 10:08 AM
November is a difficult month for me and truly never has anything done as much heavy lifting for me this time of year as how obsessed I am with Paddington the Musical www.vulture.com/article/padd...
If only this were happening in a geographically isolated city with a long and proud history of staging logistically complex art works www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...
Year delay for Adelaide showing of world-class opera - News | InDaily, Inside South Australia
International opera AIDA – spruiked by the SA government as being a "historic" first production outside of Italy, has been delayed by a year.
www.indailysa.com.au
November 14, 2025 at 4:59 AM
If only this were happening in a geographically isolated city with a long and proud history of staging logistically complex art works www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in...
Reposted by Jane Howard
Hey folks, bit of news. Commissioning changes have meant that ABC Gamer will be rested at the end of the year. My contract ends in December and I will be back on the job hunt. It’s been a dream to work here, and the Children & Family team have been extraordinary to work with. Nothing but love.
November 12, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Hey folks, bit of news. Commissioning changes have meant that ABC Gamer will be rested at the end of the year. My contract ends in December and I will be back on the job hunt. It’s been a dream to work here, and the Children & Family team have been extraordinary to work with. Nothing but love.
Reposted by Jane Howard
ABC, giving up on their gaming youtube account with 416K subs (having already given up on their gaming tiktok account with 66K subs): how do we reach younger viewers?
November 12, 2025 at 1:12 AM
ABC, giving up on their gaming youtube account with 416K subs (having already given up on their gaming tiktok account with 66K subs): how do we reach younger viewers?
I wouldn't call South Australia "the battle ground" unless it counts as a battle when its four people against every other person in the state. Labor is currently on 66% two party preferred – an 11% swing towards them from when they won the last election. www.crikey.com.au/2025/11/10/s...
South Australia is now the battleground for the forced-birth movement
Conservative forces both inside and outside state parliament want to make abortion a key issue in 2026.
www.crikey.com.au
November 11, 2025 at 6:12 AM
I wouldn't call South Australia "the battle ground" unless it counts as a battle when its four people against every other person in the state. Labor is currently on 66% two party preferred – an 11% swing towards them from when they won the last election. www.crikey.com.au/2025/11/10/s...
Reposted by Jane Howard
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
Reposted by Jane Howard
Word of the Day is ‘catchfart’ (17th century): an obsequious individual who sucks up to the boss and always follows the political wind.
November 7, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Word of the Day is ‘catchfart’ (17th century): an obsequious individual who sucks up to the boss and always follows the political wind.
Reposted by Jane Howard
New Australian content quotas are about to be introduced for streaming companies, like Netflix. These will hopefully boost the production of kids' TV - after changes the Coalition gov made in 2020, the amount of children's tv content produced nosedived
November 7, 2025 at 5:33 AM
New Australian content quotas are about to be introduced for streaming companies, like Netflix. These will hopefully boost the production of kids' TV - after changes the Coalition gov made in 2020, the amount of children's tv content produced nosedived
I'm a much better writer than I was a decade ago, but there are so many fewer places to publish. Have been trying to place an essay for over a year and it's just rejection after rejection. I'll be fine, I have a day job in this field, but what hope is there for young writers?
November 6, 2025 at 9:46 AM
I'm a much better writer than I was a decade ago, but there are so many fewer places to publish. Have been trying to place an essay for over a year and it's just rejection after rejection. I'll be fine, I have a day job in this field, but what hope is there for young writers?
Did you know when you buy a work of art and hang it in your house you can touch it whenever you want? Eating the forbidden fruit.
November 5, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Did you know when you buy a work of art and hang it in your house you can touch it whenever you want? Eating the forbidden fruit.
Reposted by Jane Howard
One of the reasons I wrote the university as unromantically as I did in my rom-com An Academic Affair was because of frustration with the way it's frequently romanticised in dark academia etc, but this makes a good point about how that's just another way of representing higher education in crisis.
‘Dark Academia’ romanticises a gothic higher education aesthetic. The modern institution is ethically closer to grey
Sorry, Baby and After the Hunt have put graduate research – and its ethical grey areas – on the screen.
theconversation.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:36 AM
One of the reasons I wrote the university as unromantically as I did in my rom-com An Academic Affair was because of frustration with the way it's frequently romanticised in dark academia etc, but this makes a good point about how that's just another way of representing higher education in crisis.
The trouble is the decade this critic was talking about was the naughties.
October 27, 2025 at 4:49 AM
The trouble is the decade this critic was talking about was the naughties.
Delighted to be a finalist at the SA Press Club awards for best columnist, for three pieces I wrote for @australia.theguardian.com www.sapressclub.com.au/sapc-awards/...
2025 Finalists - SA Press Club
www.sapressclub.com.au
October 26, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Delighted to be a finalist at the SA Press Club awards for best columnist, for three pieces I wrote for @australia.theguardian.com www.sapressclub.com.au/sapc-awards/...
Only two books in my final 10 made the top 100 (The Goldfinch, Tom Lake) which I'm not that surprised by. A few which came close to my top 10 made it (James, Educated). I've read 40, which is slightly less than I would've guessed. I am surprised by how many of those 40 I actively disliked.
October 19, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Only two books in my final 10 made the top 100 (The Goldfinch, Tom Lake) which I'm not that surprised by. A few which came close to my top 10 made it (James, Educated). I've read 40, which is slightly less than I would've guessed. I am surprised by how many of those 40 I actively disliked.
I was on a debate on UK radio. I was on the "dog earing pages is fine" side and the guy I was up against was "no it's not" – but then he was pro writing in books! Anyway let a thousand blossoms bloom, I say.
The veneration of Books As Objects misses the point entirely. If you're reading a book, turn the corners down, break the spine, spill soup on it. It's your book, go nuts. A pristine, unread book is a tragedy in a way that a beloved, much-read book that looks like the dog's been at it could never be.
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
October 14, 2025 at 11:38 AM
I was on a debate on UK radio. I was on the "dog earing pages is fine" side and the guy I was up against was "no it's not" – but then he was pro writing in books! Anyway let a thousand blossoms bloom, I say.
Reposted by Jane Howard
TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it
October 8, 2025 at 9:26 PM
TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it
Reposted by Jane Howard
This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead
Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive
www.theguardian.com
October 8, 2025 at 9:35 AM
This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
Went on a spring run and saw a pair of rainbow lorikeets feeding a chick!
October 7, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Went on a spring run and saw a pair of rainbow lorikeets feeding a chick!
Reposted by Jane Howard
When the National Press Club is opposed to hearing from journalists
What an incredible act of cowardice by the National Press Club.
WTF.
WTF.
The National Press Club of Australia, caving to the Israeli lobby, Cancels My Talk on Our Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists
The National Press Club of Australia cancelled my talk on how the media, by amplifying Israeli lies, have betrayed Palestinian journalists, 278 of whom have been assassinated by Israel.
chrishedges.substack.com
October 4, 2025 at 12:28 AM
When the National Press Club is opposed to hearing from journalists
Nothing like having a big ol cry on your cycle home from a gallery opening bcs you saw the first editor who took a chance on you when you were 21 with a science degree and a theatre review blog and now you've made something of yourself and all it took was a whole community of people believing in you
October 2, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Nothing like having a big ol cry on your cycle home from a gallery opening bcs you saw the first editor who took a chance on you when you were 21 with a science degree and a theatre review blog and now you've made something of yourself and all it took was a whole community of people believing in you
"The real goal of arts policy shouldn’t be to keep organisations solvent; it needs to keep each artform alive for the next generation. Artistic talent doesn’t spontaneously come to fruition [...] [it] is passed down from the generation before." theguardian.com/culture/2025...
Shrinking casts, diminished reach, less ambition: the arts in Australia needs more than just tax reform | Eamon Flack
The real goal of arts policy shouldn’t be to keep organisations solvent – it needs to keep each artform alive for the next generation, writes Belvoir St theatre’s artistic director
theguardian.com
September 24, 2025 at 2:23 AM
"The real goal of arts policy shouldn’t be to keep organisations solvent; it needs to keep each artform alive for the next generation. Artistic talent doesn’t spontaneously come to fruition [...] [it] is passed down from the generation before." theguardian.com/culture/2025...
The Broadway Musical Is in Trouble www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/t...
The Broadway Musical Is in Trouble
www.nytimes.com
September 23, 2025 at 11:35 PM
The Broadway Musical Is in Trouble www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/t...
I'm here commissioning the news you need right now.
From scandal to staple: how the fork travelled from Byzantium to Lithuania, helped by Queen Bona Sforza and centuries of changing table manners. 👉 theconversation.com/the-tho...
September 22, 2025 at 10:55 AM
I'm here commissioning the news you need right now.
There is an artisanal bakery in my suburb that only does bread and is only open Fridays and Saturdays until sold out and the moral of this story is Friday and Saturday is bread day and all I eat is bread and they are great days.
September 19, 2025 at 6:40 AM
There is an artisanal bakery in my suburb that only does bread and is only open Fridays and Saturdays until sold out and the moral of this story is Friday and Saturday is bread day and all I eat is bread and they are great days.