Geordie Williamson to join Island magazine as Fiction Editor

Island Magazine

Island is Australia’s most dynamic quarterly of ideas, writing, and culture. It is also one of our oldest and most respected literary magazines, based in Tasmania, Australia.

Geordie Williamson is chief literary critic of The Australian and winner of the 2011 Pascall prize for critical writing. His book about neglected Australian authors, The Burning Library, was published in 2012 (Text Publishing). He recently won the inaugural Merlyn Meyer Biography Stipend for his new book, Kings of Rapa Nui, a history of his Scottish merchant forbears and their half-century of dominion over Easter Island.

Island 136 is Williamson’s first issue as Fiction Editor. It contains new short fiction from Jessica White, Ashley Hay, Laurie Steed, Paul Griffiths and Colin Oehring.

On his joining the Island team, Geordie Williamson said:

‘I have been either reading, writing about, or writing for, Island for years now. My respect for, and sense of engagement with the journal has only deepened over time—particularly with the arrival of the indefatigable and manifestly intelligent Matthew Lamb as Editor in 2012.

‘The paradox of our contemporary moment is that the margins have the most to teach the centre: about place, about localism, and about the ways in which we must resist the benign imperialism of the literary metropolis.

‘There is valuable news still to come from Tassie; and there is a depth of talent, as well as a magnificently oblique angle of approach to both home and the wider world that I find winning, and urgent. As the great man sings: “from little things, big things grow.”

‘I look forward to managing my small patch of that verdant market garden of ideas and words.’

Matthew Lamb—in his editorial to issue 136—states:

‘Why have we asked Williamson to join the Island team? Because he takes Australian literature seriously.’

WHO: Geordie Williamson and Island magazine
WHAT: Geordie Williamson to join Island magazine as Fiction Editor
WHEN: Island, issue 136, published March 15 2014
WHERE: All good book shops, or online www.islandmag.com