Fiona Kelly McGregor
@fionakellymcgregor.bsky.social
Novelist, essayist, art writer based on Gadigal country in Sydney, Australia. Out now: The Trap, follow up to Iris. Set Sydney 1942-43, The Trap is about an entrapment scandal that went all the way to the top. No generative AI pls.
Here’s a podcast from an interview I did in May at WoW festival.
Not Quite Write@notquitewrite.com · last mo.What do you get when you mix Aussie historical fiction and homosexuality? Let's just say, it's rarely pretty. Join us for our Words on the Waves 2026 chat with author @fionakellymcgregor.bsky.social. We discussed Fiona's latest novel, The Trap, as well as power and the abuse thereof.
“In an industry under strain, product tends to be prioritised over process. I’ve been working as a critic and an editor in Australia for over 20 years and the story I hear from people in the industry is that they are being asked to do more with less, and quickly.” @catrionamp.bsky.social on OzLit
Guardian Australia@australia.theguardian.com · 2mo agoAustralia is publishing books too quickly – and everyone is losing out
"The bulldozers [made by the US company Caterpillar] turned the agriculturally rich land of eastern Gaza into a monochrome desert of crushed grey cement mixed with the area’s yellowish soil. Entire cities such as Rafah, towns such as Beit Hanoun and refugee camps such as Jabalia were erased."
Eyal Weizman · All they will find is sand: Gaza’s Yellow Line
Most of the Gaza Strip – cities, refugee camps, schools, universities, mosques, the health infrastructure, agriculture...
lrb.co.uk
'Some of the markers seem to be lexical: AIs like talking about sweetness, loudness, quiet, age and beauty. There is a lot of insisting in AI-generated texts, as well as a lot of promising, a lot of permitting and a lot of filling up.'
Malin Hay | Chattiness
I thought I didn’t use ChatGPT because I was too clever. I thought that not using ChatGPT made me cleverer. It turns...
lrb.co.uk
Australian musicians and all who love music - listen to this.
MEAA@withmeaa.bsky.social · 3mo agoIt's time for Australia to catch up with the rest of the world, and value the contribution of our creative and media workers by introducing Equitable Remuneration (ER) into Australian copyright law. #PayUp Learn more: meaa.io/payup
"By letting the West set Jews against its other victims, we suffer alongside them, while only the civilisation that historically abused us truly benefits.” Incredible interview with historian Barnaby Raine.
Good Jews, Bad Jews • EQUATOR
What the mainstream gets wrong about antisemitism
equator.org
"Dissent from outside Israel has been toothless. Arab & European capitals may have been angry at Israel’s bombings in Gaza and its policy of starvation yet their actions amounted to little more than restricted sanctions. Trade & travel between Israel & Europe have continued & the flow of most arms."
Amjad Iraqi · Short Cuts: From Gaza to Iran
It’s no surprise that Operation Roaring Lion (Israel’s name for its campaign) and Operation Epic Fury (as the US...
lrb.co.uk
New review up - on Mia Khan Boe’s Walking About at Sutton Gallery in Naarm/ Melbourne.
MIA KHIN BOE – Walking About
Sutton Gallery, Melbourne/Naarm, 7 March – 11 April 2026
open.substack.com
Good news at last. (The elephants were female too.)
US millionaire big-game hunter dies after being crushed by elephants
Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old vineyard owner, was hunting an antelope species in Africa when the incident occured
theguardian.com
The Amoc is a major part of the global climate system and is close to the tipping point of collapse. This is the biggest news of the year if not the decade.
Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought
Scientists say finding is ‘very concerning’ as collapse would be catastrophic for Europe, Africa and the Americas
theguardian.com
More great news from our university sector - more abandonment of community, more funding cuts to culture and politics.
Crikey@crikey.com.au · 4mo agoA major Sydney university has ruled out supporting community radio station 2SER, which needs to replace a funding shortfall or face closure by July. www.crikey.com.au/2026/04/16/2...
Bref, 150 writers, including Virginie Despentes, have left Grasset, French publisher, due to policies of its ultra-right owner Vincent Bolloré. Grasset is part of Hachette, big list here in Australia. I’m so inspired by writers acting against autocrats. ✊🏼
Livres. Despentes, Lévy, Beigbeder : 115 écrivains quittent la maison d'édition Grasset et ciblent Bolloré
Un total de 115 auteurs publiés chez Grasset annoncent quitter cette maison d'édition pour dénoncer le licenciement de son PDG, Olivier Nora.
estrepublicain.fr
REMEMORY - 25th Biennale of Sydney. This review is of Campbelltown Arts Centre.
REMEMORY - 25th BIENNALE OF SYDNEY - Curated by Hoor al Qasimi
CAMPBELLTOWN ARTS CENTRE, 14 March – 14 June 2026
open.substack.com
"In short, Watt’s own statement revealed that at the very time he was arguing in public and at UNESCO that industrial emissions were causing no damage to the [50,000 year-old] rock art, his own department was telling him – and he accepted – that the opposite was true."
The very model of a modern Labor general
Murray Watt – tireless fixer and good soldier – is federal environment minister in a Labor government that has approved 35 fossil fuel projects and has done little to quell disquiet about the climate ...
themonthly.com.au
Macquarie has been a little shy 👉👈 … but we know deep down it's just as proud of the billions of tonnes of emissions its financing as it is about doing climate action 🫠 So today we surprised them with an award. 🎖️ #auspol #climate #macquariebank #beetaloo
I just signed @australiainstitute.org.au's petition: Scrap the Capital Gains Tax Discount! Will you join me? nb.australiainstitute.org.au/scrap_cgt_di... Please sign to get rid of this crazy tax break!
✍️ PETITION: Scrap the Capital Gains Tax Discount
Scrapping the capital gains tax discount would make housing more affordable, increase home ownership rates, and fix a fundamental inequality in our tax system. ✍️ Add your name now >
nb.australiainstitute.org.au
Come and help me launch this novel into Sydney harbour. Everyone is welcome! Tuesday March 31. 5.30pm Sean and Dolly’s 220 William St, Woolloomooloo Hosted by Potts Point Bookshop. Launched by 78er Mark Gillespie RSVP to anna@pottspointbookshop.com.au
"Albanese can run but not hide from Carney's message about the threat from the US" But what will Carney advise? Will he have the guts to refuse involvement in the latest war? I mean, who in the woeful west hasn’t capitulated to Trump apart from Sanchez and Greenland?
Albanese can run but not hide from Carney's message about the threat from the US
Mark Carney arrives in Australia today. He has to live in a world where the threat posed by the US is obvious. It's a threat Anthony Albanese refuses to see.
crikey.com.au
" … more than half the al-Hol camp’s population are children, most under 12 years old. Albanese said Australia won't repatriate its citizens with links to Islamic State. 34 Australian women & children were turned back by Syrian authorities after they left al-Roj detention camp.
Syria reports ‘mass escape’ from detention camp holding ISIS-linked families amid reports thousands fled | CNN
A “mass escape” took place last month from Syria’s al-Hol camp that holds families linked to the Islamic State following the withdrawal of Kurdish forces, according to Syrian TV, amid reports thousand...
cnn.com
New essay up at substack. On English poet Alice Oswald giving a lecture in Paris. And other stuff too. #poetry #literature #lecture #review #paris #essay
Alice Oswald in the City of Light
And a Stranger on the Train
open.substack.com
‘Need a lord on the board?’ Great article on that pimple Mandelson, one of legion pustules popped out of the Epstein file. As a coda, read this about Mandelson's contribution to the campaign to destroy Australian Labor's proposed mining super profits tax. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
James Butler · ‘Need a lord on the board?’: Mandelson and the Lobbyists
Why did a man whose political expertise was acquired in the departed era of broadcast television maintain such...
lrb.co.uk
Israeli technology Cellebite used to hack an activist’s phone. Like Israel's Pegasus was used to track SA journalist Kashoggi before his murder. How many state and federal police forces have purchased these technologies, and are these corporate deals behind continuing support of Israel?
Kenyan authorities used Israeli tech to crack activist’s phone, report claims
Citizen Lab report suggests Cellebrite software was used to break into Boniface Mwangi’s phone while he was under arrest
theguardian.com
New essay up at brand new substack. Published five days ago, and just tweaked. Please enjoy! "Melvin Edwards, Echo Delay Reverb, and the Cops Who Just Won’t Stop." Paris, January 2026.
Melvin Edwards, Echo Delay Reverb, and the Cops Who Just Won’t Stop.
PALAIS DE TOKYO, PARIS 22/10/2025 – 15/2/2026
open.substack.com
Here’s the footage. Multiple punches on a man with his arms up. Another assault case against #nswpolice, paid for by us? Meanwhile, the man who should be arrested for inciting genocide is dining on canapés with our PM. All this under a democratically elected leftist government.
Senator David Shoebridge@davidshoebridge.bsky.social · 6mo agoShared with us from Sydney happening now. He had his hands up.
Why does this article say « police allegedly threw punches » when footage of them actually, graphically doing so has been circulating for hours already?
Police use pepper spray at Sydney rally against Isaac Herzog visit, with MP alleging officers threw punches
Grace Tame and Lidia Thorpe address crowds in Sydney and Melbourne as NSW Labor backbencher says police reaction ‘totally over-the-top’
theguardian.com
Beautiful story amidst the rolling disasters on our feed
Guardian Australia@australia.theguardian.com · 6mo agoThe moment I knew: as we sat on the veranda playing Scrabble, it hit me – I was in love
What do people think of this? That humans came out of Australia as much as or more than Africa? That they migrated north, not south?
World's Oldest Rock Art Discovered in Indonesian Cave
The dark bowels of a limestone cave on Muna Island, off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia, just yielded an ancient secret.
sciencealert.com
