Welcome to Issue 22 of Kill Your Darlings. As we go to print, the arts community is reeling from recent cuts to Australia Council funding. As proud recipients of Australia Council funding, Rebecca Starford and Hannah Kent have penned an open letter, which helps illuminate the issue. I encourage you to read the letter and sign the petition.
In this issue we celebrate everything that Kill Your Darlings does best – made possible by the support of our funders and our readers – promoting great, Australian writing.
In this issue’s lead feature ‘Death Trends: Hashtag Activism and the Rise of Online Grief’, Gillian Terzis looks at the changing ways in which we experience and publicise grief. On the back of the outpouring of public mourning for the murders of Jill Meagher, Masa Vukotic and Stephanie Scott, Gillian looks at what it means to grieve online, and examines if public grief is ever a real impetus for change.
Elsewhere in Commentary, Tim Robertson looks at the Armenian genocide and our blind spot in the Anzac legend. Omar Sakr examines the myth of the starving artist, and how the perception of the writer as a tragic figure creates barriers to the actual creation of art. Eleanor Hogan battles with sleeplessness in her inquisitive look at insomnia, while Diane White interviews people who have chosen to be childless for environmental reasons. We have a moving piece of memoir from Jessie Cole and a humorous look at hairiness from Ara Sarafian.
In Fiction, the issue features a new story from Jessica Au entitled ‘Those Who Know We Are Here’, and we also have an extract from Sonja Dechian’s upcoming short story collection, An Astronaut’s Life.
In Interview, we were lucky to secure an extended interview with Nick Cave. In this illuminating discussion, our interviewer and Nick Cave cover everything from song creation to Miley Cyrus to dolphin penises. It’s funny and frank and an absolute pleasure to read.
In Reviews, Carody Culver revisits Shirley Jackson’s lauded short story ‘The Lottery’, and looks at the horror within, while Rachel Hennessy looks at the depiction of human intimacy in Dave Eggers’s, Margaret Atwood’s and Michel Faber’s latest books.
Happy reading!
