Overland 254 launch

Join us for the launch of Overland issue 254 (70.1)!

Hosted at The Institute of Postcolonial Studies (North Melbourne), we'll be gathering together in September to celebrate the first of four special editions in our 70th year. This event is free, but capacity is limited, so please register to attend here.

Overland #254 is the first in a set of four special editions dedicated to commemorating 70 years of Overland. This issue also launches a new design and format by Common Room Editions, inspired by Overland’s trove of radical literature spanning from 1954 to today.

In the issue, Andrew Brooks and Astrid Lorange consider the asymmetrical responses to two events: the wearing of keffiyehs by three cast members during the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull, and, on the same day in the US, the shooting of three Palestinian men wearing keffiyehs. 

Elsewhere, Jeff Sparrow uncovers the Sydney Herald’s legacy of Terra Nullius, and Daniel Lopez writes on Marx, Meredith and the festival as an inversion of modern life. 

You’ll also find a moving anonymous essay that reflects on the possibilities of writing and collective dialogue after October 7.

This issue includes the 2024 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize winning story “Who Rattles the Night?” by Annie Zhang, as well as the 2024 Judith Wright Poetry Prize-winning poems by Chloe Mayne, William Fox and Andrew Brooks.

In poetry, there’s new work from Nam Le and John Kinsella, new fiction from Sahib Nazari and Tim Loveday, and more. See below for the full list of contributors.

This issue’s cover art, “After the Bushfire”, is an original woodcut by Rick Amor. This image was the cover of Overland #96, and was reproduced with permission from the artist.

Date: Thursday 19 September

Time: From 6pm

Location: The Institute of Postcolonial Studies (IPCS)

This event is free to attend! Please consider making a donation.