Meg Brayshaw is the John Rowe Lecturer in Australian Literature at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on the twentieth century Australian novel, genre, and literary engagements with place, environment and climate.

She has published in Australian and international journals and edited collections on a range of topics, including women’s writing, the Australian urban novel, maritime modernism, and literary engagements with the Anthropocene.

For this Fellowship - Rethinking realism in the work of Dymphna Cusack and Kylie Tennant - Meg will deliver a theory of realism that accounts for its popular appeal in Australian literature and show how the realisms of Dymphna Cusack and Kylie Tennant were enriched by their work in peripheral modes like radio, children’s fiction, and journalism. Meg will discuss realism’s place in how Australian literature is thought of and talked about today.

Meg Brayshaw is a 2025 National Library of Australia Fellow supported by the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust for Research in Australian Literature.