Writing
Polar Bare
For The Monthly I spoke to scientists who are analysing ice core samples, using measurements from NASA satellites, and voyaging to the remote Denman Glacier on Australia’s new icebreaker to understand the melting East Antarctic ice sheet.
Walking on water
An essay about Whitlam and pools, politics and water. Written at the Whitlam Prime Ministerial Home and now out in The Monthly. With many thanks to the Whitlam Institute and Varuna for hosting the Whitlam Essay Residency.
Sex, zips and feminism: Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying after 50 years
While its racism is the great flaw of Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying, it still has much to say to today’s reader. Read my essay for The Conversation’s feminist classics series.
Betty Can Jump at the Pram Factory: the radical 1970s play that built a scene – and changed Australia
In this piece for The Guardian, I describe finding myself on federal election day in 2022 handing out how-to-vote flyers with the film and TV actor Bruce Spence, and I look at how federal arts policy has nurtured the arts since the 1970s.
Betty Jumps High
This essay for Openbook magazine is about how the women behind Betty Can Jump first had the idea for their radical play.
Friday essay: ‘with men I feel like a very sharp, glittering blade’ – when 5 liberated women spoke the truth
This article for The Conversation contains edited extracts from Staging a Revolution: When Betty Rocked the Pram
Apocalypse Baby
An essay I wrote for Meanjin about television’s lost and found children, childless and desperate mothers, and callous and caring states.
A Change in the Weather
A story I wrote for Meanjin on life, death, memory, weather, feminism … and Nick Cave's mum.
#MeToo Stories from the Australian Movement
In the opening essay of the Picador anthology #MeToo: Stories from the Australian movement, I revisit the 70s, make peace with a 90s Helen Garner, ponder if I have any Louis C.K.s in my life and talk about the work labour movement women are doing to address sexual harassment at work.
The Sydney Women’s Film Group and Betty Can Jump
Before #MeToo, 1970s Australian feminists used film and theatre to raise consciousnesses about women's liberation. Read my story for The Saturday Paper here.
Hefner didn't invent the sexual revolution, he took credit from women
On the death of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, the ABC asked me to consider his legacy.
Friday essay: The personal is now commercial – popular feminism online
The very personal tone in which popular feminism is conducted today can be traced back to both second-wave consciousness-raising and the confessional column of women’s magazines. An essay for The Conversation’s Friday Essay series.
Don't try this at home: from Duchamp's urinal to Wim Delvoye’s Cloaca
This Daily Review essay on Duchamp's urinal, contemporary art & buying artworks from friends was inspired by a new show of works by the talented artist Paloma White.
The only way is up (via anxiety and endless self-promotion)
Read my story for Overland about LinkedIn, self-promotion, anxiety and Derek Zoolander.
The Gifts of John Forbes (Meanjin)
A memoir remembering on my friend, the late poet John Forbes. First published in Meanjin in the Summer 2016 issue.
I don't mean to be personal
A piece I wrote after an opinion piece I wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald went a little viral for all the wrong reasons.
The twinned story of journalism and feminism
A story I wrote for Women’s Agenda about the entwined history of feminism and journalism.
Gender equality: are schools leading girls down the wrong path?
This essay about girls and schools and feminism was first published by Women’s Agenda.
In praise of the divergents of the world
Insurgent, the second movie adaptation of Veronica Roth's young adult trilogy, is an intriguing dramatisation of a world that wants us all to fit into neat categories.