I covered the launch of Meanjin on Rock ’n’ Roll: All Yesterday’s Parties here, and now reporter Angela Bennie has covered the magazine for The Sydney Morning Herald:

"With the engines of death, nostalgia, place and identity driving it … the issue [has] a coherence and a larger sense of reinforcing narratives and subject matter," [writer and co-editor Mark] Mordue says. "There are darker things in there, darker themes have emerged, like themes of grieving and death. Song maps our memories, I believe. I have tried to capture the modern reality that is Australia in [the selection of] these writings."

I hope it sells well. I've recovered from my disappointment over the launch (recent rains have dissipated the birdshit on the roof of my car), and I think I'll go out and buy it. The rock 'n 'roll theme was suggested by Mark to editor Ian Britain, following in the magazine's tradition of themed issues (first drugs, now rock 'n' roll; next will be sex, in March).

According to the Melbourne University Press Web site:

Angela Bennie is a former Sydney Morning Herald literary editor, arts editor and theatre critic. She is now a senior journalist with the paper, writing about all aspects of the arts and literature.

Her first book, a collection of "famous and infamous Australian reviews of literature, theatre, music, film, architecture and the visual arts", is called Creme de la Phlegm. It is her first book. Go Angela!