MEANJIN

Hello, John, and thanks so much for taking part in this interview. As a long-time contributor to Meanjin across many forms—from poetry to essays and fiction—it’s wonderful to be able to delve into your work more deeply. I’d like to begin by asking how you see the role of literature in activism. You’ve described yourself as an anarchist, a pacifist, and an environmentalist. From your perspective, is the poem an inherently political object?