[1][2] According to the journal's inaugural editor James Ley it was created to address shortcomings in Australian book reviews.
[3][1] In 2019 SRB contributor Fiona Kelly McGregor won the Woollahra Digital Literary Award for Non-Fiction for her essay on Kathleen Mary Fallon's "Working Hot".
[4] In 2019, SRB contributor Jeff Sparrow won the Walkley-Pascall Award for Arts Criticism for his review essay of Behrouz Boochani's No Friend But The Mountains.
[5] In 2018, SRB contributor Delia Falconer won this award for an essay on writing and extinction entitled "The Opposite of Glamour".
[9] The journal is funded by Western Sydney University's Writing and Society Research Centre, the Australia Council, Create NSW, the Copyright Agency, Creative Victoria, Arts Queensland, Arts Tasmania, City of Sydney and Parramatta City.