‘Fortunately, those who live by the editorial pen need not die by it (at least not with the same ruthless permanence as those who live by the .303)’

It is this series of recollections, divided into six decade-spanning pieces that make for some of the most enjoyable reading in this latest edition of Western Australia’s longest-running literary journal. One finds it hard not to smile, for instance, at Dennis Haskell’s memory of a ‘sarcastically and slanderously witty’ Peter Cowan bemoaning the quality of short story submissions piling up on his desk; just as one is impressed to read of the journal’s ongoing support for Aboriginal writing, from its earliest days to the more recent all-indigenous issue that Hughes-d’Aeth positions ‘right near the top of Westerly’s achievements over the decades’.

On the creative front, an imposing list of short story writers, poets, and essayists have been assembled to commemorate the anniversary, with works by Jose Dalisay Jr, John Kinsella, Lucy Dougan, Bruce Dawe, and Simone Lazaroo gracing the pages. Standout fiction by Laurie Steed and Mike Williams, along with Robert Drewe’s essay celebrating Cuban kitsch will no doubt leave readers eager for another sixty years of ‘the best in writing from the West’.