“Is a few thousand words really all that is needed to change the country? The essay as a nation-shaping force certainly has a few advantages.

“For one, an essay is usually short. Quick to write and quick to read, relatively speaking. Brevity forces a writer to really focus on what they have to say. A book takes a lot longer to write and to publish; fewer people will read the whole thing. A good essay can command attention from a much wider group of people, right in the heart of a cultural moment.

“The essay is also eminently adaptable. They range from being academic and technical, to lyrical and poetic. A writer can really show what they’re made of in an essay: with generally tight word limits, there is little room to hide from shoddy thinking or dud prose.

“But changing the country? Really?

“Essays that Changed Australia is the first collection solely of essays from the pages of Meanjin, Australia’s premier literary journal with a history that now extends into a ninth decade.

“Esther Anatolitis, the journal’s current and 12th editor, says there is a lot of ambition in the collection’s title, but is quick to back up the bold claim…”

>>> Read on in the Canberra Times