This edition themed “The meaning of life” features an interview with Alice Pung exploring her meaning of life.
It includes a poem inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen Master, a commentary by Rosey Chang on the Dalai Lama and poetry by myself, Rosey and George Mouradatis. We also have a sound piece by Josh Goldman, for seven voices without words and a review of a workshop I attended at the University of Wollongong on Asian/Australian Values: New Directions in Australian Literature.
The next issues will be themed “Drama” with the …

Alice Pung is the author of the highly successful “An Unpolished Gem”. We managed to catch her in between literary dates and her work as a lawyer to ask her a few questions about the meaning of life.

Highlights from the Asian/Australian Values: New Directions in Australian Literature Workshop
I attended this workshop along with Tom Cho courtesy of Wenche Ommundsen and Alison Broinowski who brought together writers, publishers and academics to discuss Asian/Australian Values. Much was quoted from the current Griffith Review issue “In the Neighbourhood”, which featured articles discussing translation and “contamination” as a way of literary cross-pollination.

Josh Goldman is a composer / improviser / guitarist / educator who resides in the United States. He composes / improvises / performs music, using acoustic and electronic sources, for various ensembles and settings. Much of his music combines sound and visual elements (film / video / various installation spaces). His compositions and performances have been heard and awarded internationally. Mr. Goldman holds degrees from New England Conservatory of Music (BM in music performance) and Brooklyn College, CUNY (MM in music composition). 
Language is a stereophonic sound structure composed for …

I’m a student of Dharma, the Buddha’s teachings. I’m a baby student and very new to the path. Never having attended a Buddhist teaching or even read a Buddhist book, when I was 25 I bought a ticket to teachings by the Dalai Lama in Sydney. Although raised a Catholic, I naively expected to return from the teachings a convert; but these things rarely go to plan.

Saigon
He walks in silence
Ten thousand hushes
And the world takes a breath

You’re an engineer:
you understand
concrete, bearings, spans

nameless dumb late afternoon
and silence crawls in great puddles of caterpillars—