• Flanagan’s Fiction and Life

Richard Flanagan was quite helpful to me before I came to Australia, walking me through all the ways that a newcomer can get Australia wrong. Now he has a new novel coming out and this Good Weekend profile by Malcolm Knox manages to weave together Flanagan’s past and present, and his new book, with grace and insight.

He makes it look easy. The rarity of such a well-crafted and thoughtful piece suggests otherwise.

— Damien Cave

• Reporting on Race in Australia

This firsthand account of a journalist who reports on Indigenous issues in Australia is candid and revealing. The journalist, Laura Murphy Oates, is Indigenous herself but has light skin, and that has put her in some complicated and tense reporting situations.

It reminds me of reporting on Australia’s Chinese community as a Chinese national. Sometimes people try not to say things that are critical of the Chinese government; sometimes people assume I hold the same views as them because we’re from the same country. But I also get to witness a lot of tensions and friction in the Chinese community from close up. And although the issues for the Indigenous community are different, I recognized and could identify with some of the situations this reporter found herself in.

— Vicky Xiuzhong Xu

• The Ambition Collision

This piece from The Cut (an offshoot of New York magazine) was recently shared on social media by many of my female friends. It’s an interesting take on work and life for women of my generation, and the challenges of finding purpose and meaning in both. It definitely sparked an interesting conversation in my household.

— Jacqueline Williams

• Rosé Is ... Exhausting

With the weather heating up, I wanted to share Eater’s fun deep-dive into the spectacular resurgence of rosé – a once unsalvageably tacky wine – to a drink that, no, has not peaked yet.