James Ley
@jamesley.bsky.social
Deputy Books and Ideas Editor, The Conversation. Contributing Editor, Sydney Review of Books. Author of The Critic in the Modern World. Words in various other places.
Omar Musa wins the Miles Franklin Literary Award theconversation.com/omar-musas-m...
Omar Musa’s Miles Franklin win rewards epic, ambitious Australian writing with a global scope
Fierceland, the energetic, adventurous winner of this year’s Miles Franklin, asks what it means to inherit a world already being dismantled.
theconversation.com
If I were a betting person or understood Polymarket I would have put odds on the LRB commissioning Emily Wilson to write about The Odyssey; the NYRB commissioning Daniel Mendelssohn; both of them hating the film –– and you know what, I WOULD HAVE CLEANED UP www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Artful Weaving | Daniel Mendelsohn
The most authentic thing about Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is its densely braided narrative, but its tormented hero sounds like the heroes of Christopher Nolan movies.
nybooks.com
I reviewed Adam Ouston's new novel Mine (it's very good) www.themonthly.com.au/august-2026/...
‘Mine’
A poet and environmental activist experiences a fever dream of Tasmania’s landscape and mining history in Adam Ouston’s brilliantly imagined novel
themonthly.com.au
I have an article about the 'cultural Marxism' conspiracy theory in the latest ABR. www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...
James Ley reviews ‘The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy: Why the right blames the Frankfurt school for the decline of the West’ by A.J.A. Woods
Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with the ideas of Theodor Adorno will know he was an antagonist of what he called the ‘culture industry’. In Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), co-written wit...
australianbookreview.com.au
Someone should ring a bell every time a member of the Liberal Party of Australia says the word "plan".
I want to hear what Daniel Mendelsohn has to say about Nolan's Odyssey
omg this is pretty great, pls feel free to circulate
The Rinehart emails
The Saturday Paper is a quality weekly newspaper, dedicated to narrative long-form journalism.
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Excellent essay by Anthony Macris on reading the Odyssey, the history of the sword-and-sandal epic, and the new Nolan film. theconversation.com/friday-essay...
Friday essay: I’ve been reading The Odyssey my whole life. Nolan’s film version is exhilarating – but not perfect
Is Christopher Nolan’s adaptation a definitive film version of Homer’s Odyssey? No, it isn’t. In fact, it can’t be.
theconversation.com
Alice Grundy on today's AI speech from the PM. theconversation.com/the-pm-has-p...
The PM has pledged to protect artists’ copyright. But without action on AI theft it is all hot air
Anthony Albanese has made a spirited defence of artists’ rights in the AI age. But while data centres are getting concrete support, creators are not.
theconversation.com
This is essential reading for bookish types www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
Australia is publishing books too quickly – and everyone is losing out
Thanks to rushed deadlines, financial pressure and overworked staff, titles are going to market before they’re ready – and then sliding from view immediately
theguardian.com
The National Media Sector of @withmeaa.bsky.social put this statement together yesterday in the wake of Sarah being attacked by Hanson at the press club. We need to call out attacks on press freedom when we see them. It's journalists standing together against this stuff that is going to stop it.
Tonight on Spin Cycle on @3rrrfm.bsky.social we talk to Jeff Sparrow about his essay on @ahjohnson.bsky.social's, How to Sell a Genocide: the Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza. And boy do we have some local examples. 7pm with @rachelwithers.bsky.social.
Friday essay: How to Sell a Genocide exposes the double standards of reporting on Gaza
Almost all major human rights organisations agree the destruction of Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide. Yet liberal news outlets still do not use the word.
theconversation.com
Interesting article reflecting on the state of the avant-garde novel theconversation.com/what-does-th...
What does the ‘avant-garde’ look like today? Two new novels give very different answers
These novels look inwards and backwards, explaining our failed liberation and saving what they can as the world hurtles to oblivion.
theconversation.com
Against my will I watched part of an AI conference yesterday. Over four hours these were the only notes I took.
Professor Cath Ellis, pro vice-chancellor, quality and integrity... www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Sydney academic used AI to write SMH opinion piece urging students to avoid using tech to ‘cut corners’
Sydney Morning Herald removes piece by Cath Ellis, despite Western Sydney University saying her use of AI was ‘appropriate’
theguardian.com
Exciting news! @aunz.theconversation.com is hiring a new Deputy Arts Editor! This is a part time role with a primary focus on our reviews coverage, working under me. Please get in touch with any questions! jobs.theconversation.com/jobs/5385996...
Deputy Editor, Arts and Culture Job at The Conversation AU/NZ in Melbourne, Australia
Apply for THE CONVERSATION AU/NZ Deputy Editor, Arts and Culture Job in Melbourne, Australia with Compensation: $85,000
jobs.theconversation.com
I've got a slightly tetchy review of the new Colm Tóibín in the latest ABR (paywalled) www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...
James Ley reviews ‘The News from Dublin’ by Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín created some ripples last year when he remarked in an interview that artificial intelligence had doomed creative writing. He dismissed as ‘rubbish’ the idea that a computer could never rep...
australianbookreview.com.au
Collini on the shitshow that is the UK university sector. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities
The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...
lrb.co.uk
I loved Capture by Amanda Lohrey, a book full of big swings and unexpected detours. These are tough times for the novel, and what I find myself admiring most at the moment are those writers willing to take risks with their work. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...
Capture by Amanda Lohrey review – a superb novel about a study of alien abductees
The Miles Franklin winner’s plot teeters on the edge of profound silliness, but it’s also a vehicle for making meaning of our lived experiences – and those of others
theguardian.com
📚 REVIEW: Marlowe’s artistic brilliance was arguably more concentrated, his imagination more original and his ideas more daring than Shakespeare’s.
Poet, playwright, spy: Stephen Greenblatt conjures the brilliant life of Christopher Marlowe
theconversation.com
I was priced out of the housing market before it was fashionable.
Wrote about the elections for the paper (which went to press last night): www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
This Gawenda stuff is a tempest in a teapot and a distraction from the real horror of the genocide. Still, it is proving quite illuminating. The Oz has now correct the story without telling their readers that they've done so, as per these two screenshots.
The Guardian has some more quotes from JMC www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...
JM Coetzee declines to attend Jerusalem writers festival over Israel’s ‘genocidal campaign in Gaza’
Nobel laureate says he previously considered himself a supporter of Israel, but ‘the campaign of annihilation in Gaza has changed all that’
theguardian.com
James Ley@jamesley.bsky.social · 3mo agoThis doesn't seem to have received much attention www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026...
I have a review of Glenn Diaz's intriguing novel Yniga in the latest ABR (it's behind the paywall, but just letting you all know). 🙂 www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...
James Ley reviews ‘Yñiga’ by Glenn Diaz
Yñiga opens in a suburb of Manila with the dramatic arrest of a ‘retired general’ whose ‘megalomania ran unchallenged for too long’. Shortly thereafter, the suburb burns down. The novel’s protagonist,...
australianbookreview.com.au
