"There is no cultural future without the act of reading as a responsiblity and a solidarity.
The world needs careful readers like never before."
Esther Anatolitis, Meanjin Editor, Vol 84, No 2.
What's the solution?
The closure of Meanjin has triggered outrage across Australia’s literary and academic communities.Writers, editors, unions, and readers have united in protest and the community has made it clear: they want Meanjin to continue.The solution is straightforward — transfer or sale of the journal to new custodians who can ensure its future. Sector leaders, contributors, and funders are already signalling their support. What’s needed now is for Melbourne University Press to enable a clean handover of the title, its archives, and digital assets so that Meanjin can be sustained for generations to come.Join us to add your voice.
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Media coverage
"Pass the torch: Supporters of one of Australia's oldest literary journals have staged a protest against a "purely financial" decision to close it down."
AAP, 11 September 2025: 'Pass the torch': writers protest over journal's demise by Liz Hobday
"Melbourne University reported a $273 million surplus in 2024 on an operating income of $3.2 billion. It is against these figures that the ‘purely financial decision’ to close Meanjin has raised eyebrows."
The Guardian AU, 11 September 2025: Gareth Evans scolds ‘bone-headed’ Meanjin publisher as imminent closure sparks protest, by Kelly Burke
"The world should weep at the wastage this decision represents.
It’s difficult to know how the University of Melbourne could be so blind to the cultural community’s deeper interests. It is hard to imagine a worse decision. "
The Australiian, 7 September 2025: 'Gross act of ignorance': lament for literary mag
"An immediate step in the right direction would be for the University of Melbourne to restore Meanjin. Or hand it over to someone else."
Inside Story, 11 September 2025: From deserts the profits come by Jim Davidson
"Melbourne University reported a $273 million surplus in 2024 on an operating income of $3.2 billion. It is against these figures that the ‘purely financial decision’ to close Meanjin has raised eyebrows."
Crikey, 8 September 2025: Meanjin’s ‘financial’ shutdown doesn’t add up, by Catriona Menzies-Pike
"Literary journals are niche, but for the last 85 years, Meanjin has been a giant among its kind. This is something Foong Ling Kong, CEO of MUP, proudly highlighted in an email to Meanjin contributors last week."
InReview, 11 September 2025: The soft and quiet power of Australian literature needs public champions, by Farrin Foster
"Founded in ... 1940, ... Meanjin is not just a magazine, but an important cultural institution whose pages recorded and provoked national conversation and debate for the best part of a century."
The Conversation, 4 September 2025: Australian writers shocked and ‘disgusted’ by closure of 85-year-old literary journal Meanjin, by Alexander Howard
"Melbourne University Publishing has announced that the literary journal Meanjin will cease publication at the end of this year. The publication has been running for 85 years and has published the likes of Helen Garner, David Malouf and Patrick White."
ABC Radio: The Conversation Hour, 5 September 2025: The loss of a literary journal, Richelle Hunt interviews Sophie Cunningham
"This raises significant concerns about the capacity of MUP to be custodians of Meanjin. They’ve already trashed it with the absurd announcement of its closure, and now this. I am just one contributor who has never consented to make it freely available and certainly not for AI scraping."
The Australian, 8 September 2025: Free Meanjin in the age of scraping? by Caroline Overton
"Last week’s announcement of Meanjin’s closure marks a poignant moment for Australian culture ... Closing it suddenly, without warning and with no consultation, on “purely financial grounds”, is a very deliberate act."
The Conversation, 8 September 2025: The decision to close Meanjin misunderstands its wider importance. Australian culture deserves better by Ben Eltham
"Literary journal Meanjin will make its complete archive available online for free from February 2026, according to a post made to the journal’s social media pages."
Books+Publishing, 9 September 2025: Meanjin archive to be 'made available for free'
"Where will writers be published in future with Meanjin, after a 85-year history, producing its final issue in December 2025?"
Workers Bush Telegraph, 8 September 2025: Meanjin’s cold fate, by Ian Curr
"The journal’s closure has sparked letters, petitions, and now, a protest ... Their key demand is that MUP hand the keys for Meanjin over to new owners, rather than kill the darling altogether."
Sydney Morning Herald, 11 September 2025: ‘Don’t stack up’: Writers protest over Meanjin closure by Charlotte Grieve and Linda Morris
"Former editor Jonathan Green takes us into the finances of running a literary magazine, and Ben Eltham explains why he's organising a protest to save Meanjin."
Arts in 30 on ABC Radio National , 10 September 2025: Meanjin to close after 85 years. Sky Kirkham interviews Jonathan Green and Ben Eltham.
"This week on the pod The Battlers talk to the suddenly former deputy editor of Meanjin, Eli McLean, about the untimely killing of the 85yo literary journal. Jump to 37.55 for the interview."
The Battler Podcast, 10 September 2025: Ep. 25 Meanjin Streets ft. Eli McLean: On the untimely murder of Meanjin
"This would have been a win for accessibility and preservation a decade ago, but in the age of AI — which can scrape the internet and steal data to train its algorithms — it raises ethical questions for the authors behind the work."
Crikey, 9 September 2025: Meanjin mumblings, Albo’s podcast parlay, and Trump masterfully pisses off absolutely everyone by Cochon Truffier
"MUP says it is ‘no longer viable’ to make the literary magazine – but almost none of them are financially viable. That’s not their purpose or value ... Where is any sort of ... commitment to keep the magazine going in some form?"
The Guardian AU, 6 September 2025: The end of Meanjin after 85 years is as sad as it is infuriating by Ben Walter
"The ABC’s Jonathan Green, a former Meanjin editor, said, ...'This is a bad call by the University of Melbourne ... Meanjin’s financial demand is trivial … a few hundred thousand dollars … the cultural loss of its death is as significant as it is tragic'."
Crikey, 4 September 2025: Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing by Daanyal Saeed
"Meanjin has been a stalwart of the Australian literary scene for decades, having published authors including Helen Garner, Peter Carey, Michelle De Kretser, Alexis Wright and David Malouf."
The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 September 2025: Australian writers slam closure of iconic literary magazine Meanjin by Kerrie O'Brien
"It is unthinkable that one of our leading universities, an institution which outlines a strategic priority to ‘contribute to social, economic and cultural wealth’, would sacrifice such an essential piece of cultural infrastructure within our nation’s literary landscape."
Westerly, 5 September 2025: From the Editor's Desk: On the Closure of Meanjin by Catherine Noske
"Carey likened the decision to destroying a creative ecosystem ... “MUP, who are now destroying a proven breeding ground for Australian literary culture,” the Booker Prize-winning author said."
The Age, 5 September 2025: ‘Destroying a proven breeding ground’: Peter Carey slams Meanjin closure by Kerrie O'Brien
"Shutting long-running literary journal, which published emerging writers as well as the cream of Australia’s literary talent, described as act of ‘utter cultural vandalism’."
The Guardian AU, 4 September 2025: Decision to close Meanjin criticised as act of ‘utter cultural vandalism’ by Kelly Burke
"'It’s a way of enforcing, I suppose, shutting down a whole lot of voices. So in many ways it’s a form of censorship. Shutting down an avenue for a lot of voices is a form of censorship'. Poet and academic Jeanine Leane, speaking to SBS"
Books+Publishing, 10 September 2025: ‘Cultural pillage’: The Australian literary community responds to Meanjin’s closure
" For 85 years, Meanjin has supported, elevated and launched the careers of a staggering number of writers, including many of our own staff and students..."
Statement from the University of Melbourne Creative Writing Program as shared on Bluesky, 11 September 2025
"Meanjin did not receive direct funding from Creative Australia, but MUP received $100,000 in early 2025, money which it has not used, apparently, to save Meanjin."
Quadrant, 7 September 2025: Meanjin‘s Sad Decline and Demise by Matthew White
"For over 80 years Meanjin has been a quiet but powerful enabler of Australian literature. It required a mere pittance to keep it alive ... Its closure is an occasion for nothing less than grief."
Eureka Street, 8 September 2025: A lament for Meanjin by Michael McGirr
"The decision sees the end of the platform and publication that gave us the term "cultural cringe" and has published generations of Australian writers. "
ABC Radio National, 9 September 2025: What does the end of Meanjin say about Australian culture? Presented by David Marr
"...it is abysmally poor practice to act as Melbourne University has done, and it is not surprising that there is speculation about the motives."
Crikey, 10 September 2025: Australia is losing cultural institutions untied to the ‘logic of profit’, say Crikey readers
"The ASA is dismayed by the news that literary journal Meanjin will cease publishing this year, with the final issue due to be released in December."
Australian Society of Authors, 5 September 2025: ASA dismayed over Meanjin closure
"The last edition of Meanjin will be published in December, 'the board having found it no longer viable to produce the magazine'."
ArtsHub, 5 September 2025: Meanjin, Australia’s second oldest literary journal, to close by Paul Dalgarno
"They say the closure, which comes following no special appeals for subscribers or attempts to “save” the publication by its publisher, is on “purely financial grounds”."
NakedFella.Com, 9 September 2025: Purely Financial Grounds illustration and words by David Blumenstein
"Journalist Jonathan Green is a former Editor of Meanjin and spoke to ABC NewsRadio's Laura Tchilinguirian."
ABC, 4 September 2025: Australian literary magazine Meanjin closes after 85 years
"Australia's second-oldest literary journal Meanjin will close after 85 years, with Melbourne University Press citing financial pressures for..."
The Australian, 5 September 2025: After 85 Years, Meanjin no more
"University of Melbourne associate provost Marcia Langton said, ‘This is a significant loss to the literary community. As a contributing author, I cannot fathom why this journal, steeped in Australian literary traditions, innovations, and history, cannot be rescued.’"
Books+Publishing, 5 September 2025: Meanjin literary journal to close on ‘financial grounds’
"“Disgusted” Noongar writer Claire G. Coleman, writing on Bluesky , called Meanjin's closure“cultural vandalism of the highest order”; she pointed out the journal is older than the Sydney Opera House."
MENAFN, 4 September 2025: Australian Writers Shocked And 'Disgusted' By Closure Of 85-Year-Old Literary Journal Meanjin
"And if we want to talk of subsidies, the wealth of unpaid or low-paid contributions over the years, painstakingly worked over by the writers and their editors, largely just to contribute to the life of the mind, was, literally, beyond price."
Crikey via inkl, 10 September 2025: Australia is losing cultural institutions untied to the ‘logic of profit’, say Crikey readers
"If there was a time we need Meanjin, it’s this exact moment when Meanjin will no longer exist. Is it a coincidence that when we are facing a world that needs its writers now more than ever, that we see one of the important avenues for the publication of their work disappear?’"
The Spencer Street End, 5 September 2025: The day the music died by Jacinta Parsons
"... the utter sloth of an organisation that, if what it says is true, couldn’t answer the financial problems of a particular mode of delivery with some kind of rethink that kept the baby while changing some part of the bath water."
Other Green Worlds, 5 September 2025: The Death of Meanjin: Price of everything, value of nothing dept. by Jonathan Green
"The thing is, Meanjin, which ran on the smell of an oily rag, was, by Australian literary journal standards, in good financial nick. It received a healthy and steady supply of grant funding, and had that rarest of things for any publication (particularly a literary journal, especially an Australian one) – a growing subscriber base."
The Yeah Nah Campaign, 9 September 2025: Meanjin’s Murder is Bullshit and Shameful by Patrick Marlborough
"...Melbourne University Publishing announced it was shutting down the long-running literary journal Meanjin, sparking outrage across the student body and literary community."
Radio Fodder News PodCast from, University of Melbourne Radio Program, 9 September 2025: UniMelb is shutting down Meanjin. Why?
"Closure of Meanjin: A Cultural Loss as Australia's Iconic Literary Journal Shuts Down After 85 Years."
Australia Daily News, 10 September 2025: Meanjin Closes After 85 Years
"More than 700 people have signed an open letter to the vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, callng on her to sacrifice ten per cent of her salary to save the literary magazine..."
SBS News in Depth, 5 September 2025: 'Cultural pillage': Writers devastated by decision to close iconic literary journal Meanjin
Always was. Always will be.
Save Meanjin organisers acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and acknowledge their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the Elders past and present.
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