“All life will beauty fly me
Leaving pale tints of its passing
Still pools rippled by leaf-fall
Storm send swifting wild skies.”
– Paul Grano, lyrical poet published by Meanjin in the 1940s.
Where will writers be published in future with Meanjin, after a 85-year history, producing its final issue in December 2025? The magazine has spent the last 17 years as an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing (MUP). Why did Melbourne University withdraw its funding? Was Meanjin really left-wing? Keith Windshuttle said so, but then, he would say that.
Meanjin was founded in Magandjin (Brisbane) in 1940. One of its founders, Christesen chose the name ‘meanjin’ (pronounced MEE-an-jin), a Yuggera word for the site where central Brisbane sits. Meanjin is has a different meaning (“spike” or “spearhead”) to Magandjin and local traditional owners advocate for Magandjin as a more historically accurate and appropriate name for the wider Brisbane region. In the late 1940s and 1950s, Meanjin covers used imagery inspired by traditional Aboriginal design. However, this was often done by non-Aboriginal artists and adapted from anthropological studies, leading to cultural appropriation.
‘The first issue of “Meanjin” was published at Brisbane in 1940, containing the poems of Clem Christesen, James Picot, Brian Vrepont and Paul Grano. Christesen was the founding editor and remained in that position until 1974, attempting to produce a “journal of ideas, built around books, to encourage free expression and intelligent criticism, to put forward ‘advance guard’ material, develop contacts abroad – a Literary Lend-lease”. – Michael Treloar, antiquarian book seller.
Paul Grano declared “It is clear, then, that while Labour [sic] retains its socialistic objectives it must lose the support of all Catholics… The Pope has spoken and I do not believe that any Catholic can in the future conscientiously vote Labour.’ Hardly left-wing.
Past contributors to Meanjin include Judith Wright, Kylie Tennant, Manning Clark, Vance & Nettie Palmer, A D Hope, Dymphna Cusack, Martin Boyd, Alan Marshall, Dorothy Hewett, Peter Singer, Vincent Buckley, Donald Horne, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Patrick White, Gwen Harwood, Bruce Dawe, David Malouf, Humphrey McQueen, Jack Hibberd, Bruce Pascoe, Roberta Sykes, Helen Garner, π.O., Alex Miller, Frank Moorhouse, John Morrison, Sarah Holland-Batt, Hal Porter, Rodney Hall, A A Phillips, Alexis Wright, Peter Carey, Alice Pung, Michelle de Kretser, J M Coetzee, Carmen Callil, Claire G. Coleman and Dorothy Porter.
Depending on your definition, that doesn’t really make Meanjin a left-wing magazine it’s really a literary magazine with some writers who are radicals. But that does not make the magazine anti-zionist or left-wing. There are plenty of publications that are PeeP – Progressive on everything except Palestine.
Was the decision by Melbourne University made purely on financial grounds?
The Melbourne University Press Board claims it was no longer viable to continue publication.
Meanjin paid two part time staff and had recently received a $100,000 grant from Creative Australia. The cost of printing would not have been great given the volume of publications put out by MUP.
Quotes from publishers concerning the demise of Meanjin:
Crikey: 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.
“In the midst of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, I am highly aware that Jews in Australian society have never been so visible and that the question of antisemitism has never been so fraught.” – Max Kaiser, Editor Meanjin magazine.
Catherine Noske, past Editor of Westerly: The closure of Meanjin is, in this sense, an insult to Australian culture. It is a damaging and short-sighted assessment of value, placing greater significance on small-scale cost-saving than the inestimable richness of the space Meanjin holds for Australian literature. It disregards coldly the cultural wealth of the magazine, and the cultural infrastructure it represents on a national level. Make no mistake, our nation is poorer for this.
Did Zionists shut down Meanjin?
Did an infuriated Mark Leibler* instigate an action against Meanjin? Mark Leibler has connections in Israel at the highest level. Does this make Leibler effectively an agent for a Israel?
I do not think the story ends there especially in a racist country famous for its culture wars.
But I do ask, in its long history, was Meanjin ever anti-zionist?
Ian Curr
8 September 2025
* chairman of AIJAC (the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council)