Essays, reviews and journalism

'The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein - review', Guardian Australia, 10 November 2025.

'Sure, tech giants can't train AI on copyright content for now, but that doesn't mean the battle is over', Crikey, 29 October 2025.

'Desolation by Hossein Asgari - review', Guardian Australia, 12 September 2025.

'Meanjin's "financial" shutdown doesn't add up', Crikey, 8 September 2025.

'Arborescence by Rhett Davis - review', Guardian Australia, 22 August 2025.

'Pissants by Brandon Jack - review', Guardian Australia, 4 August 2025.

'Salvage by Jennifer Mills - review', Guardian Australia, 13 June 2025.

'The Empress Murders by Toby Schmitz - review', Guardian Australia, 27 May 2025.

'A Half Century of Hatchet-Jobs', Griffith Review: 88, April 2025.

'Meta's theft matters but there are more immediate threats to Australian authors', Crikey, 23 April 2025.

'The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana - review', Guardian Australia, 17 April 2025.

'Little Morality plays - review of The Cancel Culture Panic by Adrian Daub', Australian Book Review, April 2025.

'Signs of Damage by Diana Reid - review', Guardian Australia, 13 March 2025.

'Instead of defending its artists, Creative Australia hangs Sabsabi and Dagostino out to dry', Crikey, 17 Feburary 2025.

'Joan Lindsay by Brenda Niall - review', Guardian Australia, 6 February 2025.

'Another publishing house gets swallowed, leaving Australian literature on shaky ground', Crikey,  30 Jan 2025.

'The Season by Helen Garner - review', Guardian Australia, 5 December 2024.

'The Thinning by Inga Simpson - review', Guardian Australia, 15 November 2024.

'Enemies of Goodness', Sydney Review of Books, 1 November 2024 - on No Judgement by Lauren Oyler and All Things Are Too Small by Becca Rothfeld. 

'Australian Gospel by Lech Blaine - review', Guardian Australia, 1 November 2024.

'Big Fish, Little Fish: Australia's national literature is being swallowed up', Crikey, 30 September 2024.

'Diving, Falling by Kylie Mirmohamadi - review', Guardian Australia, 20 September 2024.

'The End and Everything Before It by Finnegan Kruckemeyer - review', Guardian Australia, 19 July 2024.

'No Mercy: A review of Scott Morrison's memoir', Crikey, 14 May 2024.

'Everything is Somehow Alike', Sydney Review of Books, 5 May 2024 - on Filterworld by Kyle Chayka.

'Excitable Boy by Dominic Gordon - review', Guardian Australia, 2 May 2024.

'How To Knit A Human by Anna Jacobson - review', Guardian Australia, 5 April 2024.

'A Decade of Complaints', Australian Literary Studies, October 2023 – on public and private modes of complaint about literary value.

‘The Measure of Things’, Australian Book Review, October 2023 – on Question 7, by Richard Flanagan.

‘As Pluck Would Have It’, Sydney Review of Books, October 2023 – on the fiction of Pip Williams.

‘Fool’s Gold’, Public Books, May 2023 – on the excesses of blurb culture.

‘Only Feelings’, Sydney Review of Books, December 2022 – on The Most Important Job in the World, by Gina Rushton.

‘Critic Swallows Book’, Sydney Review of Books, May 2022 – on the fiction of Trent Dalton.

‘Pick Your Own Misadventure,’ Sydney Review of Books, March 2017 – on Avalanche: A Love Story, by Julia Leigh.

‘A Fluctuating Charm,’ Sydney Review of Books, July 2017 – on An Uncertain Grace, by Kris Kneen.

‘Race Plans’, Griffith Review, August 2016 – on motherhood and running.

‘Writing, Editing: an interview with Ellen van Neerven’, Sydney Review of Books, October 2015.

‘How Should A Feminist Critic Be?’ Kill Your Darlings, January 2015 – on Roxane Gay. 

‘The Life of Houses’, Australian Book Review, July 2015 – on Lisa Gorton.

‘Channelling the Emotion of the Moment’, Los Angeles Review of Books, November 2014 – on Julia Gillard's memoir.