What emerges is not so much a shift in the literary landscape as a continuum, a homogeneity challenged only by the inclusion of two Indigenous voices: the rhythmic vernacular of Melissa Lucashenko’s ‘Sissy Girl’ (2001), and Bruce Pascoe’s story in dialogue ‘The Headless Horseman of the Drummer’ (2009). Otherwise, it seems that women continue to grapple with the conflict between domesticity and independence, objectification and violence, and men with their relationships to women, to their fathers, and to aspects of the world they cannot control. Every character is dealing with an obscure yearning, dissatisfaction, or emptiness; every story with transitions, uncertainties, and the precarious nature of reality.

This may be an accurate reflection of the contemporary condition or, in an ironic reading of Gerald Murnane’s cover blurb, an indication of Meanjin’s unwavering preference for conventional content over experimental form.