With the Olympics in Paris just weeks away from commencement, ArtsHub decided it would be a bit of fun to speculate on what the Games would look like if, say, instead of sporting prowess being celebrated, we looked to championing the cerebral might of wordsmiths. To that end, we reached out to a community of bookish folk to see what events they would support if mind games were lauded over the body brawny and beautiful.
It’s a great pity that the arts are no longer a component of the Games, but if we had a literary Olympics what likely events would be on the cards?
Thuy On is the former Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian.
She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025).
Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy
