The Lifted Brow

TLB was established in 2007 by Ronnie Scott, and run since early 2012 by Sam Cooney. It is a not-for-profit literary organisation, which also runs the book publishing imprint Brow Books. It has been funded in part by Arts Victoria and the Australia Council. The organisation is run by volunteers.[1]

In April 2020 The Lifted Brow announced a pause in operations following an investigation by the board into sexual misconduct and unprofessional conduct by a TLB worker. [2] Rumours were reported of some senior staff having inappropriate relations with and taking advantage of unpaid junior staff. Following this investigation Cooney, along with the rest of the board, resigned. A new board installed themselves in mid-2020.[3]

The Lifted Brow is an Australian quarterly print literary magazine/journal. There is also a digital version available.

In 2015, The Lifted Brow announced that it was expanding into book publishing.[8] Brow Books was created in 2016 to publish the authors and books that established publishing houses were largely ignoring due to perceived lack of commercial viability.[9]

In 2018, the Brow put out a call soliciting manuscripts translated by Australians. "If you are translating a work from a language that is underrepresented, we want to hear from you."[10] The Brow also entered into a co-publishing agreement with Tilted Axis, a nonprofit dedicated to publishing contemporary Asian literature. The agreement gives Brow right of first refusal in Australia and New Zealand for Tilted Axis titles.[11]

Published works[12]

2016

• The Island Will Sink [13], the debut novel of longtime Lifted Brow contributor Briohny Doyle.[14]

2017

• Shaun Prescott's debut novel, The Town.[15]
• Law School by Benjamin Law and Jenny Phang, with illustrations by Beatrix Urkowitz.[16]
• The Best of The Lifted Brow: Volume Two.[17]

2018

• Axiomatic[18] by Maria Tumarkin, a Stella award shortlisted novel.[19]
• Apple and Knife, a collection of short stories by Indonesian writer Intan Paramaditha, translated by Stephen J Epstein of Victoria University of Wellington.[20]
• Pink Mountain on Locust Mountain[21], Jamie Marina Lau's Stella award shortlisted debut novel.[19]
• Han Yujoo’s The Impossible Fairytale, translated from Korean by Janet Hong.[22]
• One Good Turn[23], the first book of Mary Leunig's illustrations to be published in 25 years.[24]
• Small Beauty, by debut author Jiaqing Wilson-Yang.[25]
• Balancing Acts: Women in Sport, edited by Justin Wolfers with Erin Riley.[26] Contributors to this non-fiction work include Brunette Lenkic, Imogen Smith, Jodi McAlister, Nicole Hayes, Danielle Warby, Kasey Symons, Emma Jenkins, Erin Stewart, Ellen Van Neerven, Kate Doak, Holly Isemonger, Gina Rushton, Charlotte Guest, Katerina Bryant, Nadia Bailey, Savannah Indigo, Stephanie King, Laura Buzo, Roslyn Helper, and Rebecca Slater.
• Going Postal: More Than 'Yes' or 'No', edited by Quinn Eades and Son Vivienne.[27]

2019

• Comic artist Mandy Ord's When One Person Dies The Whole World is Over.[28]
• This Young Monster by Charlie Fox.[29]
• Bright by Duanwad Pimwana, the first English language novel by a Thai woman to appear outside of Thailand.[30] The text was translated by Mui Poopoksakul.

Forthcoming works[31]

To be published in 2020

• The Relationship is the Project edited by Jade Lillie, with Kate Larsen, Cara Kirkwood and Jax Jacki Brown.
• Vietnamatta by Stephen Pham.
• Gunk Baby by Jamie Marina Lau.
• Dizzy Limits: Experiments in Australian Nonfiction.
• Big Beautiful Female Theory by Eloise Grills, an expansion the winning essay from the 2018 Prize for Experimental Non-Fiction.[32]
• Capitalism Makes Me Sick! by Nicky Minus.

To be published in 2021

• Anamnesis, or A Book No Longer Discussed Today by André Dao.

To be published in 2021/22

• Fuji by Jamie Marina Lau.

• List of literary magazines

• The Lifted Brow website
• Brow Books website
• Review of Issue 7 on Crikey
• Review of Issue 29 on TEXT Journal
• Publication overview in The Times Literary Supplement
• S. Cooney profile