The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have selected Jessie Tu and Declan Fry to join their ranks of freelance book reviewers, as part of an emerging critics project with the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund and Judith Neilson Institute.

The critics will regularly review new Australian fiction and non-fiction.

Jessie Tu, who lives in Sydney, is books editor and journalist for the Women’s Agenda news site. A prize-winning poet, she recently published her debut novel, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing (Allen & Unwin). Jessie studied music and law and trained as a violinist before turning to full-time writing. She has been published in the LA Review of Books and The Guardian.

Declan Fry received First Class Honours in English and Cultural Studies/Asian Studies at the University of Western Australia and also has a Juris Doctor law degree from the University of Melbourne. He is from Kalgoorlie in Wongatha country, Western Australia, and is a descendant of the Yorta Yorta. Now based in Naarm (Melbourne), Fry’s critical writing and essays have been published in Meanjin, Australian Book Review, Sydney Review of Books and Overland.

The appointments are part of a wider expansion of the newspapers’ culture coverage. The critics were chosen following a rigorous selection and interview process by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald books editor, Jason Steger, The Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum Editor, Shona Martyn, and award-winning authors Melissa Lucaschenko and Maxine Beneba Clarke.

There were nearly 40 applicants for these positions, which were readvertised following the resignation in July of Jack Callil and Bec Kavanagh who objected to the lack of diversity among the chosen critics.

“We reviewed our recruitment process and made a concerted effort to get the call for applicants out to a broader audience, which resulted in a very strong and diverse field of candidates,” said The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Life Editor, Monique Farmer.

“We are pleased to welcome Jessie and Declan to our mastheads and look forward to sharing their critical writing with our readers.”

Fry said: “Very excited about the appointment – we live in a continent with a rich tradition of story. Many of these are still being told, and deserve to be widely heard. It’s always an act of love to see words put to paper and shared with the world. Particularly during a time when many of us cannot see each other – and hope to be together with our families and communities – and it’s that kind of love which can help us to feel less alone.

“This appointment would mean nothing without those who have paved the way, our ancestors, Elders, family, mentors, and teachers. They are the original critics and we owe them so much. I can’t wait to get started.”

Tu said: “This country’s literary landscape is overwhelmingly white. The publishers are mostly white, the writers mostly white. This means that only a very particular and narrow cohort of society are getting to curate the shape of our national identity.

“It’s time we begin to face up to the ways in which we perpetuate unconscious bias and racism through the stories we consume. The role of the critic is vital to a nation’s sense of self and its unique lens. We need more lacerating, impenitent perspectives on our homogeneous literary environment, and I hope to precipitate critical cultural and political discussions with my writing.”

For more information:
Miranda Ward
Communications Manager
miward@nine.com.au

Wednesday, August 19, 2020