But I was serious about this. You read enough books in which people like you are disposable, or are dirt, or are silent, absent, or worthless, and it makes an impact on you. Because art makes the world, because it matters, because it makes us. Or breaks us.
The Stella Prize – the next, bold iteration – on counting diversity in the Stella Prize.
‘We speak English in this country’: Victim of racist rant tracks woman who defended her (has autoplay)
Nope, Still Not OK: Absolutely Fabulous’ Yellowface Casting
These forgotten female crime writers had no time for femme fatales or dowdy housewives
This article assumes, annoyingly, that its readers don’t speak or read Chinese, but this is super interesting regardless: The long, incredibly tortuous, and fascinating process of creating a Chinese font. (So ridiculously over dramatic, come on quokkas)
On home workers: A huge underclass of ghost workers are making your shirts in their homes
CAH has a third party factory in China, usual shitty conditions, so I was surprised to read this: Cards Against Humanity gives its entire Chinese workforce a holiday
While our factory provides excellent wages and working conditions, Chinese working conditions are generally more strict. This year, we used the money from one day of our holiday promotion to give our workers something very uncommon in China: a paid vacation.
The printer didn’t have any formal procedures for paid vacations, so we bought 100% of the factory’s capacity and paid them to produce nothing for a week, giving the people who make Cards Against Humanity an unexpected chance to visit family or do whatever they pleased.
How to Not Ruin the Holidays for your Fat Friends and Family
The cast of next year’s J K Rowling-penned Harry Potter play has been announced … and Noma Dumezweni is playing Hermione. Spoilers: she is not white.
We at No Award think it’s pretty cool that JKR has gone from reading and faving articles about racebending and PoC headcanons in HP to actually casting a woman of colour. And Dumezweni has been quite amazing in the few things Liz has seen her in.
(Doctor Who. I’ve seen her in Doctor Who.)
Melbourne MP includes a black baby Jesus in her nativity display, people respond with racism. Wait ’til you see their faces when they realise Jesus was a Middle Eastern refugee, eh?
An Unbelievable Story of Rape. A compelling long read about a serial rapist, and the particular case of one of his victims, a girl who had just left foster care, who was treated remarkably differently to the middle class women who were also attacked.
The Skies Belong To Us: How Hijackers Created An Airline Crisis In the 1970s. Remember that episode of Daria where Jane jokes about hijacking a plane? Talk about things that wouldn’t fly (ahahahaha) in a post 9/11 world.
Christmas in Australia means one thing: Cricket.
Submit to Stuff
For its second number in 2016, Southerly will be producing an issue, co-edited by David Brooks and Andy Jackson, on Writing and Disability, and we are seeking contributions in all our usual fields – poetry, short fiction, essay, review, memoir, etc. Both physical and psychological disability will be considered – visible and invisible – and disability will be interpreted widely within these areas. The co-editors do not wish to limit contributions in any way. They do note, however, that the area of writing and disability is significantly under-theorised, especially in the Australian context, and hope that this publication might make some contribution in this area.
Deadline: June 30th 2016
The Bit About Star Wars
John Boyega’s Response to White Tears is the Blackest Thing I’ve Ever Heard This Week
Emo Kylo Ren feels like a throwback to fandom c2002 in the best way possible.
Spotify has some truly outstanding official Star Wars playlists.
Seriously thinking about Gross White People Business as a new tag here at No Award
Meet the Kleptogastromaniacs, Customers Hooked on High-End-Food Theft
Of course, there can be a certain pleasure in getting something for nothing — and achieving that emotional state can be a goal that takes over the lives of some people (even very well-heeled ones). Take the case of a successful white-collar professional who began stealing wine from stores at the age of 50 after several deaths in his family. Like many wine connoisseurs, he was guided by Robert Parker’s wine reviews and aimed for bottles with a rating of at least 95. Then he set a goal of boosting $1,000-worth of wine in a week, and succeeded. Along the way, though, he was arrested several times and spent heavily for lawyers to avoid a felony conviction that might have cost him his professional license.
Bendigo mosque appeal thrown out of court
Ms Hoskin, who refused to comment to the media after the Court of Appeal judgment was handed down, tumbled down the steps outside court after the verdict, and had to be given first aid treatment for a suspected broken ankle.
She was helped into a taxi by members of the media, after refusing an ambulance.
On Wednesday morning, the court rejected the residents’ claims that the mosque would bring negative social effects to Bendigo. The judges said Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights protected freedom of religion, and said the mere practice of religious worship could not be considered to be an adverse “social effect”.
KARMA
From there, Liz fell into a chocolate fraud spiral (totes a thing), and discovered the same blogger’s 2006 expose of the world’s most expensive chocolate as, well, a badly tempered, repackaged wholesale product.
(If reading that has left you curious about the world of bean to bar chocolate, and you’re in Melbourne, turns out Haigh’s has been doing bean to bar since before these whippersnappers came along.)
(Chocolate fraud is also a great topic if you love reading investigative journalism, but aren’t in the mood for crime or, you know, anything where people are seriously hurt.)
no-award.net 
“JKR has gone from reading and faving articles about racebending and PoC headcanons in HP to actually casting a woman of colour.”
JKR has been publicly saying on Twitter that she didn’t have a say in casting Noma Dumezweni, though she is in favour.
That said she also was clear, both for the movies and the play, that her first choices got the roles and I can’t imagine for a second she hasn’t been close to the process both times.