EPISODE #7

Alison Croggon / Cher Tan / Prithvi Varatharajan / Matthew Lutton

ON THE SHOW

Poet, novelist and critic Alison Croggon and non-fiction writer and critic Cher Tan join Jonathan Green to discuss the nature of contemporary criticism in this episode of the Meanjin podcast. They explore the role and responsibility of the critic and tackle some of the challenges facing cultural critics today.

Next, poet Prithvi Varatharajan invites us on a tour of budding romance in his poem ‘Love Poem’ (published in our Summer 2018 edition).

Lastly, Jonathan Green speaks with Malthouse Theatre’s Artistic Director and CEO Matthew Lutton about the upcoming production of Cloudstreet adapted from Tim Winton’s beloved novel.

SHOW NOTES

→ Cher Tan mentions the writer Hanif Abdurraqib
→ Cher Tan mentions the 1959 Harpers article ‘The Decline of Book Reviewing‘

OUR GUESTS

Alison Croggon

ALISON CROGGON is co-editor and founder of Witness. She is an award-winning novelist, poet, librettist and critic. She has 30 years experience reviewing performance for outlets such as The Australian, the ABC and The Monthly and generated an international reputation as a performance critic with her influential blog Theatre Notes, which revolutionised performance discourse in Australia. Alison has published eight collections of poetry and several novels, including the acclaimed fantasy quintet The Books of Pellinor, Black Spring, The River and the Book and the science fiction Newport City series, co-written with Daniel Keene. You can find out more at alisoncroggon.com.

Cher Tan

CHER TAN is a critic and narrative non-fiction writer based in Birraranga/Melbourne, via Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide and Singapore. Her work has appeared in Meanjin,The Lifted Brow, Runway, Westerly, Overland, and Swampland, among others. She is the author of cultural criticism food/book journal Cooking The Books, and is Kill Your Darlings‘ 2019 New Critic.  http://jerkofalltrades.net / @mxcreant

Prithvi Varatharajan

PRITHVI VARATHARAJAN is a writer, literary audio producer, and Commissioning Editor at Cordite Poetry Review. His writing has appeared widely in Australian and overseas journals, and he has a book of poetry and prose, Entries, forthcoming with Cordite Books in 2019. He holds a PhD from the University of Queensland on ABC RN’s Poetica.

Matthew Lutton

MATTHEW LUTTON is Malthouse Theatre’s Artistic Director and Co-CEO. Prior to this, he was Malthouse Theatre’s Associate Director, and the Artistic Director of ThinIce in Perth. For Malthouse Theatre, he has directed Melancholia, Bliss, Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets, The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man, Away, Edward II, Picnic at Hanging Rock, I Am a Miracle, Night on Bald Mountain, The Bloody Chamber, Dance of Death, Pompeii, L.A., On the Misconception of Oedipus, Die Winterreise and Tartuffe.

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