This issue will focus mainly (though not exclusively) on Papua New Guinea. The prominent historian and memoirist Drusilla Modjeska will introduce a collection of essays, poetry and fiction relating to our important near-northern neighbour. Rather than concentrating on political and economic issues, this collection will focus on the writing inspired by the region, the stories there are to tell, the ways they have been told and the confrontations between past and present, tradition and modernity that they evoke. Australian writers Trevor Shearston, Inez Baranay, David Brooks, Martha Macintyre, Hank Nelson, Jim Griffin and film makers Bob Connolly and Les McLaren join PNG writers Steve Winduo, Regis Stella, Yauka Liria, and Tasha Sai and performers William Takaku and Nora Vagi Brash. Other, non-PNG features will include a conversation between David Marr and Peter Mares on the ramifications of the refugee crisis, the Tampa incident and the 'children overboard' affair.