The Thousands

Despite its title, there’s very little actual or suggested violence between the covers of Kill Your Darlings. Unless you count Gideon Haigh’s point-blank assassination of Australian book reviews.

Named for William Faulkner’s oft-quoted advice to writers to ‘ruthlessly cut out that which doesn’t serve a purpose’, the brand new fully independent local journal is neatly segmented into Commentary, Fiction, Interview and Review, assisting reader and writer alike. The subject matter is totally en pointe: Raymond Carver, Sarah Waters, roller derby and Ricki-Lee Coulter (thank you Oslo Davis).

For fear of bleeding over into extraneous territory, we shall say simply that it is difficult to highlight one piece over another, but do pay particular attention to the bits by Clementine Ford, Justin Heazlewood and Chris Womersley, and to Rebecca Starford’s consideration of the new short story collection by Mary Gaitskill.