Hannah McCann

An uneasy ordinariness: feminist ambivalence negotiating beauty in the everyday Feminist approaches to beauty can largely be understood along two lines: a major strand that emphasizes the punishing and harmful aspects of beauty practices; and a more minor strand that attempts ...

New article out today with Shirley Xue Chen about feminist ambivalence when it comes to everyday experiences of beauty www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The nonbinary playing field: confusion as participatory affect in contemporary memoir This article theorizes confusion as a central affect in nonbinary life writing. Drawing on a corpus of contemporary nonbinary memoirs, I propose the metaphor of the nonbinary playing field to descr...

Fantastic new article out from one of my PhD Students Claude Kempen, making sense of confusion in nonbinary memoir: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The physical copies of my new book, based on my DECRA research, have arrived! You can order a copy for your library here: www.bloomsbury.com/us/emotions-... or read about the project at: www.beautysalonproject.com

CFP now open for the 2026 Critical Femininities Conference, on the theme "Temporalities"! Full CFP can be found here: www.criticalfemininities.net/conference Please send abstracts to critfemininities@gmail.com by March 13, 2026

Hair Care as Care Work with Hannah McCann and Paige Lewin

Looking forward to giving this seminar next week, with the incredible Paige Lewin

torch.ox.ac.uk/event/hair-c...

Black text on white background. Screenshot of ARC’s Network Message regarding delays to grant announcements because of new security arrangements.

⁉️The ARC has delayed outcomes of ALL grants 1–4 months & increased scheduled outcome windows from 2 weeks to 3 months!

This reverses 4 years of progress in providing greater certainty & ability to plan for researchers, their families & unis.

Their excuse? Security checks under new ARC legislation👇

‘The streets are full of blood’: Iranian protests gather momentum as regime cracks down Demonstrators recount experiences on the frontlines as protest movement rapidly moves beyond government’s control

The incredible repression of information happening in Iran, hiding the bloody state crackdown — and how grotesque to hear the foreign minister using Trump killing civilians to normalise this

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

There is stuff about touch and massage in there! People who work with sportspeople’s bodies would relate

My book is out today! Do me a favour and ask your library to order a copy? www.bloomsbury.com/us/emotions-...

There are two venerated, much feared trees on the edge of Barwell Common. Known as Whip Scar and Tangle Knife, they are home to particularly quarrelsome Wood Sprites. To pass between them has a fearsome terror tithe and even if it's paid, you are still likely to hear them spitting curses.

New poem out today in @theberlinreview.bsky.social ✨ theberlinliteraryreview.com/hannah-mccan...

‘Her instinct is to save lives’: Chaya, 14, recovers after being shot while shielding children during Bondi terror attack The 14-year-old answered a desperate call for help and left her place of shelter to protect two younger children

These stories of bravery are truly amazing, never stop believing in humans even in the worst times

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘It was a matter of conscience’: Ahmed al-Ahmed’s family reveal why he risked his life to disarm alleged Bondi shooter Family say al-Ahmed ‘doesn’t discriminate’ and would have done anything to save lives during the attack

Returning to this story again and again in the midst of despair

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Absolutely horrifying to see those scenes from such a cowardly attack in Bondi.

Love this interview with Andrew Brooks www.liminalmag.com/interviews/a...

Last but not least, a REALLY cool gift idea is a poetry subscription. That could be Giramondo’s poetry subscription where they send you books throughout the year(!) or a lit mag subscription like HEAT or Overland or Island that all support poetic writing. They all rock. Buy poetry!!

Another poetry collection that is so cool you should buy one for yourself too. It’s Marxism it’s pop it’s the proletariat. Buy for: your friend in your group secret santa, or the person you chat to most about eating the rich

I have no idea how Isabella Mead had the headspace or memory to exactly capture so much of early parenting days in poetry form, but she has. Buy for: your mum friend who you would like to know that you *see* her and all that she does

This one is partly about working in offshore detention with refugees, so content warning for upsetting themes. Pettitt-Schipp’s writing is accessible and very beautiful. Buy for: your politically engaged family members

Another seriously cool collection about femininity and queerness and being Filipina-Australian. There is at least one very sexy poem in this. Buy for: your femme crush

This is a really excellent exploration of Boorlo/Perth via engagement with colonial archives and loads of cosmological metaphors. Buy for: your friend the emerging writer who wants to learn about voice and research based writing, or your cousin who cares (or ought to) about First Nations writing

Judith Beveridge will be right up there as a potential Australian poet laureate (once we get one!) I think. The language is accessible but the poems are complex and extremely image based. Queen of metaphors. Buy for: your immediate family member who loves walking in nature/on the beach

This one is super dark with complex literary devices, it not easy going cognitively nor thematically. But its language rings out. Content warning serious mental health themes. Buy for: your writerly friend or the mother of a complex teen

This one is super accessible and won a bunch of awards. Barrina South writes about longing and everyday life and her relationship to country as a First Nations person. Buy for: the aunt who you got in secret santa

Toby Fitch is one of my fav Australian poets and they have new work coming out next year which is SO exciting. This one has lots about parenting and Sydney and Covid (content warning). Buy for: your Covid conscious friend or a friend who studied literature but doesn’t read enough now or a Sydney pal

This one is so cool, heaps of concrete poetry (poems in shapes), and lots about mental health. But this for: your cherished queer friend you chat about being tired with

This one WON the Prime Minister’s Literary award this year. Super accessible, can buy for poetry fans and those new to poetry. Includes lots of animal rights poems. Buy for: pretty much anyone

It’s time for my annual thread of Australian poetry books you should buy ppl for Xmas. No one buys poetry partly cos it’s intimidating. It rarely makes xmas book guides. But poetry is an ethical gift that: supports underfunded writers; wins brownie points with gift receiver; improves the human soul

Reading the responses to this is unbelievably interesting, I can’t wait to share them in an eventual book