Interview with Richard King - Thinker, Author, Critic, Poet

Richard King is a Fremantle based thinker, author, critic and poet.

Born and raised in the United Kingdom, he gained an MA in Literary History and Cultural Discourse from the University of Sussex, before moving to London to work in bookselling and develop his own writing career.

Since moving to Australia in 2001, he has been published in a range of newspapers and magazines, including The Australian, The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Independent, The Monthly, Griffith Review, the Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, Overland, New Matilda, Australian Book Review and 3 Quarks Daily (for whom he wrote a regular column between 2016 and 2018).

Richard has also been published in The Best Australian Poems and the Best Australian Science Writing. Close to the Arena cooperative in Melbourne, he writes regularly for Arena Online and Arena’s quarterly magazine, focusing in particular on the relationship between culture and technology. His first book On Offence: The Politics of Indignation (Scribe, 2013) was widely and positively reviewed by critics, with The Weekend Australian’s Geordie Williamson calling it ‘an extended essay of uncommon eloquence and brio.’

The late Clive James, an admirer of King’s writing, wrote the following on his personal website:
‘In any English-speaking newspaper, of whatever altitude, news and culture tend to be separated by a rabbit-proof fence, but Richard King has been given a free hand to make news out of culture, and without trivialising the second thing in favour of the first.’

King’s latest book is Here Be Monsters: Is Technology Reducing Our Humanity? published last year, 2023, by Monash University Publishing

If you’d like to know more out what Richard is up to, here’s his website.

Our Editor, Michael Barker, was pleased to catch up with Richard King this week to discuss Here Be Monsters, technology, AI and humans and to make the podcast you’ll find below.

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