<
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/nov/13/not-defensible-not-debatable-charlotte-wood-makes-impassioned-plea-for-australian-writers>
"“Covid is destroying the lives of writers in many ways – through the
loss of their day jobs in lots of cases, but also by obliterating three
major income streams for writers outside their books: public speaking,
university teaching and freelance writing.
“Jobkeeper is literally at the moment keeping many writers alive, and I
don’t know what will happen when it runs out … and there was nothing in
the government’s Covid rescue package for writers who are not attached
to organisations.”
Wood said that even before the pandemic hit, government funding for the
literary arts had “fallen to rock bottom”. Australia Council funding for
literature had fallen 44% in the past six years, she said.
“Literature receives less than half the money the Australia Council
gives to other art forms. This is just not defensible; it’s just not
debatable any longer. We need it mandated that literature receives an
equitable proportion of the available funds."
Via Muse.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
