@ReubenMackey_

AusLit, metafiction, and anything else difficult and annoying.

linktr.ee/reubenmackey
Joined April 2020
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My article on Gerald Murnane’s A Million Windows is finally live at TEXT Journal (and open access!). It’s an assortment of thoughts on how and why certain obsessive critics have responded to Murnane + my attempt to write from within the House of Fiction. textjournal.scholasticahq.co…

Inside the house of fiction: The creative-critical possibility of Gerald Murnane’s A Million...

By Reuben Mackey. Through a reading of Gerald Murnane’s A Million Windows (2014), I propose a model for how a critic might read from within a literary text.

textjournal.scholasticahq.com
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Reuben Mackey retweeted
Emmett Stinson@EmmettStinsonOct 6
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Evan Dent@evancdentSep 3
trying the first page test on the supposed book of the 20th century… I dunno gang
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Martin Shaw@thebooksdeskAug 2
Page one test for Adam Ouston’s Mine - a 278-page, single-sentence novel - just out from @transitlounge2
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So beyond what is recommended here, I browsed through the AusLit section of Readings—picking out anything new, doing a first page test etc—and everything new is shit, sorry. Michael Ahmed’s Bugger looks okay? Rose Michael’s Else, too. What happened to the golden year of 2024?
Reuben Mackey@ReubenMackey_Jul 24
Need some recommendations. So what actually are the most interesting Aus fiction books from the last 12 months? Or other books coming out this year? I’ve gotten increasingly out of the loop. What’s good apart from Winkler/Ouston? It looks dire…
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Need some recommendations. So what actually are the most interesting Aus fiction books from the last 12 months? Or other books coming out this year? I’ve gotten increasingly out of the loop. What’s good apart from Winkler/Ouston? It looks dire…
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Selen@writingenjoyerMay 26
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If any prize account was going to resort to AI slop content, then it would always be the Miles Franklin…
MilesFranklin@_milesfranklinMay 11
The countdown has begun. Australia's most prestigious literary prize — the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2026 is here. Because great fiction doesn't just reflect Australia, it defines it. Follow for upcoming announcements👇 #MilesFranklin #MFLA2026 @onRlive
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Chiba disapproves of your book discourse
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Coming back, again, to one of my favourite Jen Craig pieces, "Invisible Writing", from her old micro-fiction blog. No one does it better...
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absurdenticements.blogspot.c…
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And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die…his feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, Tiny Tim. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.
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New review by me in which I'm sadly very negative. Small publishers are the lifeblood of AusLit, so when a new one emerges promising the strange and unusual, I'll be extra-critical on whether they deliver on the promise or not... australianbookreview.com.au/…
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Really enjoyed this strange and very short novel set across Australia and the USA that is very much about not being sure where you are in the world.
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Chiba has declared I can’t read this morning
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So sad to hear about the passing of Australian experimental author Moya Costello—a great writer, a lovely human being, an excellent scholar and teacher, and the inspiration for Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello.
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Murnane patiently waiting for a call today, despite not owning a phone.
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“If we’ve learned anything from the recent slew of Zionist attacks on culture in Australia, it’s that institutions — mainly universities — are often a poisoned chalice for writers and editors.” Deputy editor Eli McLean on the closure of MEANJIN. overland.org.au/2025/09/no-g…

“No Guernicas, no sacred places”: On the closure of Meanjin - Overland literary journal

Australia’s literary culture depends for its life on its journals. Literary journals are not just clearing houses for pithy snatches of commentary and readable middlebrow fiction — they’re incubators...

overland.org.au
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Absurd. Gerald Murnane has written many horse texts.
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Picked this up on the recommendation of @ReubenMackey_
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