2025: David Ashord’s A Book of Monsters: Now’s the Time for it
Via Affirmations: of the Modern. A review of David Ashford’s A Book of Monsters, an excellent academic study on artistic expressions of anxieties about the consequences of the Enlightenment and Modernism now both have passed.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31646/am.154
Via Written Off Issue #3, which I also served as assistant editor on. An experimental piece influenced by Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Fifty-Year Sword. Four high school students who witnessed a disturbing incident talk over one another, interject, and interrupt each other’s accounts.
-I guess we always thought it was one of those things they do-
-all the boys knew if they wanted to get a rise out of him, they’d just-
-THIYES IS HAOWYEUGHREMAAANDMEYAFWATEYERARELYAM-
-“And this is how you remind me / This is how you remind me of what I really am—”-
-yeah, on God, just like that-
-And he’d stop in place; he’d cringe. His shoulders would hunch, and it would take a solid minute for him
to go back to normal and carry on with the lesson-
-of course, we always thought he was faking-
-it’s giving … “theatre kid”-
Published April 2025
ISSN: 2982-026X
2024: Season[al labour]s in the Abyss
Via Written Off Issue #1, which I was proud to be assistant editor of. Officially a short story. Unofficially, a diary entry, and what I really wanted to say with “I’m a Writer, an Academic, and a Trolley Boy.”
An old lady croons, “Hello beautiful, aren’t you cute?”
“I try,” I reply, grinning sheepishly.
Her eyes move from the German Shepard tied just beside where I’m working, to me. She had been addressing the dog…
Published April 2024
ISSN: 2982-026X
Via ZineWest 2023. A brief reflection on Australia’s relationship with fascism, past and present, and how it silently colonised the antipodes without anyone noticing.
Published October 2023.
ISSN: 2201-1242
2023: Modern Horrors in the Translated Works of Giorgio De Maria
Via Affirmations: of the Modern. A peer-reviewed article exploring the historical contexts of the recently-translated works of cult Italian author, Giorgio De Maria, through the lens of modernist studies. The first scholarly article on the subject written in English, it expands on the introductions offered by Ramon Glazov, De Maria’s translator, and situates De Maria’s work both within the literatures of Italy’s Years of Lead, and the broader nexus of 20th century European Modernism. It contends that Italian Fascism is equally a consequence of modernity and modernism, and a profound influence on the subsequent trajectory of both. To that end, it locates De Maria’s allegorical treatment of mid-to-late century sectarian violence in the same tradition as works concerned with the horrors of the turn of the century.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.57009/am.136
2023: Bold actions drive bold changes in Western Sydney
Via The Fifth Estate. Co-authored with Professor Nicky Morrison. Written during my tenure as copy and content writer for Western Sydney University’s Urban Transformations Research Centre. Discussing the Centre’s visions for 2023, reaffirming our commitment to the region, and sharing bold ideas from key thinkers from our inaugural event.
Produced through Writing and Society Research Centre’s The Writing Zone project, Ghost Cities is an anthology of work produced across 2021 and 2022. Featuring work from Anith Mukherjee, Geneva Valek, Harvey Liu, Grace Roodenrys, Laneikka Denne, James W. Goh, Bria McCarthy, Lucia Tưò’ng Vy Nguyễn, Natasha Pontoh-Supit, and Benjamin D. Muir
Edited by Christina Donoghue, Kate Fagan, Melinda Jewell and Catriona Menzies-Pike
Design and cover art by Jade Nelson
163pp
Published September 2022
ISBN: 978-0-6489982-4-2
2022: I support “quiet quitting”, but I can’t afford to do it
Via SBS Voices, SBS Australia. Discussing the job security and white collar comforts one requires to partake of quiet quitting.
2022: The relief I felt at being diagnosed with ADHD
Via SBS Voices, SBS Australia. Discussing the story of how I came to be diagnosed with ADHD at age twenty-eight, and how this made sense of my earlier experiences.
2022: I was told how healthy I looked, but I hadn’t slept in days
Via SBS Voices, SBS Australia. Discussing society’s assumption that skinny equals healthy, and the assumptions people make when your weight changes dramatically.
2022: I never appreciated my teachers until I had students of my own
Via SBS Voices, SBS Australia. Discussing the emotional investment of teachers, particularly in problem students, and how it feels to be in both roles.
2021: What I learned from buying my first car at 27
Via SBS Voices, SBS Australia. Discussing what it’s like going from having no money your entire adult life, to suddenly having some and not knowing what to do with it.
Produced through Writing and Society Research Centre’s The Writing Zone project, Patient Zero is an anthology of work produced in the year of 2021. Featuring work from Anith Mukherjee, Geneva Valek, Harvey Liu, Grace Roodenrys, Laneikka Denne, James W. Goh, Brianna McCarthy, Lucia Tưò’ng Vy Nguyễn, D Vrtaric’, Natasha Pontoh-Supit, Katrina Trinh, and Benjamin D. Muir
Edited and designed by Christina Donoghue
Digital chapbook
88pp
Published November 2021
ISBN: 978-0-6489982-2-8
2021: Evenings with David Astle, ABC Radio
I spoke with David Astle from ABC Radio Melbourne about my SBS article, passions, and possums. Aired on 25th of November.
2021: I’m a Writer, an academic and a Trolley Boy
Via SBS Voices, SBS Australia. Discussing the social dynamics of working multiple jobs, some prestigious, some not so much.
2020: ‘House of Leaves changed my life’: the cult novel at 20 by Andrew Lloyd for The Guardian
Via The Guardian. In April 2020, Andrew Lloyd spoke with Mark Z. Danielewski, Dreebs Thornhill, Timothy Peters and me regarding the book and its lasting impact.
2019: Mary Khan Starts a Union
The January 2019 Edition of Antipodean Science Fiction featured a flash fiction I wrote some years back called Mary Khan Starts a Union. It is a humorous piece about the daily frustrations of Mary Khan, Gengis Khan’s 441st wife, and perhaps the world’s first trade unionist.
2018: The McMillan Notes: Exploring the Gippsland Massacres through Historiographic Metafiction
My Master of Research thesis, comprised of an extract of my forthcoming novel, The McMillan Diaries under the title The McMillan Notes, and “Its Roots must Hold up the Sky”: House of Leaves and Archived Trauma, my critical paper on Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves.
2017: FBI Radio’s Or It Didn’t Happen @ Studio Stories
For Studio Stories‘ November 2017 edition, I read two of my poems. One of these, The Most Glamorous Night of my Life: A Prose Poem was aired on FBI Radio’s Or It Didn’t Happen, a podcast of local fiction.
Benjamin D. Muir 