Overland Journal
@overlandjournal.bsky.social
Overland Journal – radical Australian literature and culture since 1954
overland.org.au
overland.org.au
“The selective punishment of one group of migrants or refugees is not an incidental feature of our migration regime: it is its central organising principle.”
Sanmati Verma, Josephine Langbien and James Clarke on the new wave of deportations to Nauru.
Sanmati Verma, Josephine Langbien and James Clarke on the new wave of deportations to Nauru.
A silent discipline: why we all need to hold the line against deportations to Nauru - Overland literary journal
As we watch Immigration and Customs Enforcement lay siege to communities in Minnesota — detaining and disappearing neighbours, parents and children while terrorising their allies — we should remember ...
overland.org.au
February 18, 2026 at 2:25 AM
“The selective punishment of one group of migrants or refugees is not an incidental feature of our migration regime: it is its central organising principle.”
Sanmati Verma, Josephine Langbien and James Clarke on the new wave of deportations to Nauru.
Sanmati Verma, Josephine Langbien and James Clarke on the new wave of deportations to Nauru.
“I argue that the use of this term must not be dislocated from Indigenous critiques of settler colonialism.”
Ruth De Souza on the misuse of Cultural Safety.
Ruth De Souza on the misuse of Cultural Safety.
On the misuse of Cultural Safety - Overland literary journal
Since its original formulation and application in the health sector in Aotearoa New Zealand in the 1980s, Cultural Safety has been subject to wide reinterpretation. Its entry into institutional life m...
overland.org.au
February 16, 2026 at 2:22 AM
“I argue that the use of this term must not be dislocated from Indigenous critiques of settler colonialism.”
Ruth De Souza on the misuse of Cultural Safety.
Ruth De Souza on the misuse of Cultural Safety.
If you sit still and quietly in a natural environment for twelve minutes, then the animals there will go back to how they were acting before you arrived: a new poster by the inimitable @samwallman.bsky.social.
12 minutes - Overland literary journal
If you sit still and quietly in a natural environment for twelve minutes, then the animals there will go back to how they were acting before you arrived.
overland.org.au
February 12, 2026 at 10:47 PM
If you sit still and quietly in a natural environment for twelve minutes, then the animals there will go back to how they were acting before you arrived: a new poster by the inimitable @samwallman.bsky.social.
“When it comes to fiction, then, I am arguing that the anxiety that provoked the writing of Juice is incited by, not detached from, capitalism and power, and no less dangerous than what Winton describes as apathy.”
Daniel Ray on Tim Winton’s JUICE
Daniel Ray on Tim Winton’s JUICE
Juice and the politics of anxiety - Overland literary journal
Recently longlisted for the 2026 Climate Fiction Prize, Tim Winton’s latest novel, Juice is not — as Winton himself and critics have described it — hopeful and a “creative projection of ‘wondering…’’”...
overland.org.au
February 11, 2026 at 1:44 AM
“When it comes to fiction, then, I am arguing that the anxiety that provoked the writing of Juice is incited by, not detached from, capitalism and power, and no less dangerous than what Winton describes as apathy.”
Daniel Ray on Tim Winton’s JUICE
Daniel Ray on Tim Winton’s JUICE
“This is the story of what this win means — not just for the Starkeys and the Kokatha people, but for the global arms trade and the corporate actors operating on Indigenous lands.”
Miriam Deprez on how Kokatha custodians took on multinationals in the Woomera Prohibited Area.
Miriam Deprez on how Kokatha custodians took on multinationals in the Woomera Prohibited Area.
Holding the line: how Kokatha Custodians took on multinationals in the Woomera Prohibited Area — and won - Overland literary journal
Andrew Starkey knew the fight to protect Indigenous cultural heritage couldn’t be fought via the usual channels of justice. Instead, the Starkeys took Saab Australia to the Australian National Contact...
overland.org.au
February 9, 2026 at 1:15 AM
“This is the story of what this win means — not just for the Starkeys and the Kokatha people, but for the global arms trade and the corporate actors operating on Indigenous lands.”
Miriam Deprez on how Kokatha custodians took on multinationals in the Woomera Prohibited Area.
Miriam Deprez on how Kokatha custodians took on multinationals in the Woomera Prohibited Area.
Our Summer Program concludes today with MASSIVE GLACIER COLLAPSE COMPILATION VOL 9, a brilliant new poem by Lach Valentine. Generously supported by our friends at @copower.bsky.social.
Massive glacier collapse compilation vol 9 - Overland literary journal
we are pointing at anything / that flickers, flowers, and beats / our hearts, the trees, and the stars / all set to be slaughtered / in the Anthropocene™ we have set / as revenge for the exile
overland.org.au
February 6, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Our Summer Program concludes today with MASSIVE GLACIER COLLAPSE COMPILATION VOL 9, a brilliant new poem by Lach Valentine. Generously supported by our friends at @copower.bsky.social.
“But Gabriel was not alone, no matter how far his woolly thoughts stretched, and how eternal time felt.”
Our Summer program continues with the first Friday Fiction for 2026: BALM OF HURT MINDS by Claire Cao.
Our Summer program continues with the first Friday Fiction for 2026: BALM OF HURT MINDS by Claire Cao.
Balm of hurt minds - Overland literary journal
In the small hours, the world below Gabriel’s window began to swell with life but he took no notice. He had long learned to tune out the screech of traffic, the mechanical whirr of the going-home trai...
overland.org.au
January 30, 2026 at 12:20 AM
“But Gabriel was not alone, no matter how far his woolly thoughts stretched, and how eternal time felt.”
Our Summer program continues with the first Friday Fiction for 2026: BALM OF HURT MINDS by Claire Cao.
Our Summer program continues with the first Friday Fiction for 2026: BALM OF HURT MINDS by Claire Cao.
“And so ends an obscene, morally violent and deceptive novel.”
In what may be Overland’s most Summer read ever, John Kinsella engages in a masterful, labyrinthine (and parenthetical, elliptical …) reading of Hawthorne’s THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES.
In what may be Overland’s most Summer read ever, John Kinsella engages in a masterful, labyrinthine (and parenthetical, elliptical …) reading of Hawthorne’s THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES.
The anxieties of a singular usage of parenthesis: a brief observation of a “fireside tale” that is a novel - Overland literary journal
The gothic valorisation of colonial legacy is complete, the purification ritual completed, and moral responsibility abrogated. What does this mean for the bracketed social comment? That social convent...
overland.org.au
January 22, 2026 at 5:41 AM
“And so ends an obscene, morally violent and deceptive novel.”
In what may be Overland’s most Summer read ever, John Kinsella engages in a masterful, labyrinthine (and parenthetical, elliptical …) reading of Hawthorne’s THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES.
In what may be Overland’s most Summer read ever, John Kinsella engages in a masterful, labyrinthine (and parenthetical, elliptical …) reading of Hawthorne’s THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES.
Reposted by Overland Journal
We've lost Meanjin, a situation that was completely unthinkable until it actually happened. Don't think we won't lose more. It's quite clear there are people who don't care what they destroy for political gain. Literary culture in this country is already frayed. Don't let it come apart entirely.
January 12, 2026 at 10:37 PM
We've lost Meanjin, a situation that was completely unthinkable until it actually happened. Don't think we won't lose more. It's quite clear there are people who don't care what they destroy for political gain. Literary culture in this country is already frayed. Don't let it come apart entirely.
Reposted by Overland Journal
In addition to supporting Palestinian writers like Randa Abdel-Fattah, and authors and artists who withdrew from AWW in solidarity, spare a thought for the "little" magazines like @overlandjournal.bsky.social, who have relentlessly stood up for Palestine and have been comprehensively defunded for it
January 12, 2026 at 10:33 PM
In addition to supporting Palestinian writers like Randa Abdel-Fattah, and authors and artists who withdrew from AWW in solidarity, spare a thought for the "little" magazines like @overlandjournal.bsky.social, who have relentlessly stood up for Palestine and have been comprehensively defunded for it
Reposted by Overland Journal
If we don't have places like @overlandjournal.bsky.social who will publish dissenting voices, writers who make the hard and uncomfortable arguments, unapologetic left-wing positions, and who do the work of helping writers find their voices, we don't have literature in this country
January 12, 2026 at 10:34 PM
If we don't have places like @overlandjournal.bsky.social who will publish dissenting voices, writers who make the hard and uncomfortable arguments, unapologetic left-wing positions, and who do the work of helping writers find their voices, we don't have literature in this country
“The Adelaide Festival’s decision to dump Palestinian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah gives us a grim foretaste of the Australian cultural landscape in 2026.”
David Brophy on “ambient antisemitism” and the institutional mechanisms for curtailing protest and political expression.
David Brophy on “ambient antisemitism” and the institutional mechanisms for curtailing protest and political expression.
Universities and the arts after Bondi: from definitions to “ambient antisemitism” - Overland literary journal
The Adelaide Festival’s decision to dump Palestinian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah from its upcoming Writers’ Week gives us a grim foretaste of the Australian cultural landscape in 2026.
overland.org.au
January 8, 2026 at 10:52 PM
“The Adelaide Festival’s decision to dump Palestinian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah gives us a grim foretaste of the Australian cultural landscape in 2026.”
David Brophy on “ambient antisemitism” and the institutional mechanisms for curtailing protest and political expression.
David Brophy on “ambient antisemitism” and the institutional mechanisms for curtailing protest and political expression.
Reposted by Overland Journal
If you haven't read @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social's article for @overlandjournal.bsky.social yesterday on the politics of what's happened in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre, let me recommend you do so now.
overland.org.au/2025/12/on-t...
overland.org.au/2025/12/on-t...
On the need for a renewed democratic universalism - Overland literary journal
If we’re to emerge from this awful spiral, in which one form of identitarian chauvinism spurs the next, we’ll only do so on the basis of a very different politics: one that takes for granted the abili...
overland.org.au
December 19, 2025 at 2:29 AM
If you haven't read @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social's article for @overlandjournal.bsky.social yesterday on the politics of what's happened in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre, let me recommend you do so now.
overland.org.au/2025/12/on-t...
overland.org.au/2025/12/on-t...
“I kept telling myself, “There’s no such thing as Climate Police”. They simply do not exist.”
Our final online magazine post for the year is a new cli-fi story by Madison Hovey — generously supported by @copower.bsky.social
Our final online magazine post for the year is a new cli-fi story by Madison Hovey — generously supported by @copower.bsky.social
Tiny house prisons for felons and other Neanderthals - Overland literary journal
I never thought they would actually take us away. Rip us from our beds in the dark of the night. Jolted out of sleep like a fish pulled out of water. It sounded like one of those pranks your boarding ...
overland.org.au
December 19, 2025 at 12:57 AM
“I kept telling myself, “There’s no such thing as Climate Police”. They simply do not exist.”
Our final online magazine post for the year is a new cli-fi story by Madison Hovey — generously supported by @copower.bsky.social
Our final online magazine post for the year is a new cli-fi story by Madison Hovey — generously supported by @copower.bsky.social
“If we’re to emerge from this awful spiral,” writes @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social, “we’ll only do so on the basis of a very different politics: one that takes for granted the ability of ordinary people — of any race, gender or creed — to unite against racism and violence.”
On the need for a renewed democratic universalism - Overland literary journal
If we’re to emerge from this awful spiral, in which one form of identitarian chauvinism spurs the next, we’ll only do so on the basis of a very different politics: one that takes for granted the abili...
overland.org.au
December 18, 2025 at 3:12 AM
“If we’re to emerge from this awful spiral,” writes @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social, “we’ll only do so on the basis of a very different politics: one that takes for granted the ability of ordinary people — of any race, gender or creed — to unite against racism and violence.”
“The Free Palestine protests have been a vital site amidst a deteriorating political climate where solidarity and compassion are forged.”
Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak on the role of the solidarity movement in the fight against antisemitism.
Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak on the role of the solidarity movement in the fight against antisemitism.
Blaming Palestine solidarity for the Bondi massacre helps, not curbs, antisemitism - Overland literary journal
Despite this dominant narrative, within the movement there is a clear assuredness that tackling antisemitism is a shared responsibility that is interconnected with the political project of anticolonia...
overland.org.au
December 17, 2025 at 11:04 PM
“The Free Palestine protests have been a vital site amidst a deteriorating political climate where solidarity and compassion are forged.”
Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak on the role of the solidarity movement in the fight against antisemitism.
Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak on the role of the solidarity movement in the fight against antisemitism.
“But it’s also that this land, this beautiful Aboriginal land, was not made to hold such grief. It can, and it does, but it shouldn’t have this burden thrust upon itself.”
@jordanas.bsky.social on the logic of violence that permeates Australia.
@jordanas.bsky.social on the logic of violence that permeates Australia.
Yes, this is what Australia is - Overland literary journal
Imagine though the possibility of a response which was not horrid. Which did not demand more violence be piled up. Which led us to other ways of being together, other horizons of possible futures. Ima...
overland.org.au
December 17, 2025 at 12:24 AM
“But it’s also that this land, this beautiful Aboriginal land, was not made to hold such grief. It can, and it does, but it shouldn’t have this burden thrust upon itself.”
@jordanas.bsky.social on the logic of violence that permeates Australia.
@jordanas.bsky.social on the logic of violence that permeates Australia.
“Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that anti-Arab sentiment and xenophobia are not confined to the past, or to Cronulla.”
Megan McElhone addresses revisionist histories of the Cronulla Riots, twenty years on.
Megan McElhone addresses revisionist histories of the Cronulla Riots, twenty years on.
Contending with Cronulla Riots revisionism, twenty years on - Overland literary journal
Rather than writing revisionist histories of the Cronulla Riots, we need to contend with the racism and xenophobia the riots were founded upon. The mob ultimately achieved its aim, with Middle Eastern...
overland.org.au
December 11, 2025 at 1:32 AM
“Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that anti-Arab sentiment and xenophobia are not confined to the past, or to Cronulla.”
Megan McElhone addresses revisionist histories of the Cronulla Riots, twenty years on.
Megan McElhone addresses revisionist histories of the Cronulla Riots, twenty years on.
“One reader asked me, “Did you ever work out who the informants were?””
After reading through more personal files and the scholarship of the past seven years, Tom Orsag follows up on his 2018 OVERLAND piece on the workings of ASIO.
After reading through more personal files and the scholarship of the past seven years, Tom Orsag follows up on his 2018 OVERLAND piece on the workings of ASIO.
Always Searching Idiotically for Order - Overland literary journal
An article about my ASIO file from the years 1982 to 1991 that I published in Overland in 2018 raised more general questions about ASIO’s surveillance efforts against the far-left. One reader asked me...
overland.org.au
December 10, 2025 at 12:57 AM
“One reader asked me, “Did you ever work out who the informants were?””
After reading through more personal files and the scholarship of the past seven years, Tom Orsag follows up on his 2018 OVERLAND piece on the workings of ASIO.
After reading through more personal files and the scholarship of the past seven years, Tom Orsag follows up on his 2018 OVERLAND piece on the workings of ASIO.
Both the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize submissions have been extended until midnight this Friday! Links below:
December 9, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Both the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize submissions have been extended until midnight this Friday! Links below:
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In an article for Overland, Scarlet Alliance CEO Mish Pony explores a censorship legacy that was the forerunner to Australia’s online safety codes. Read the article via overland.org.au/2025/12/howa...
December 8, 2025 at 2:29 AM
In an article for Overland, Scarlet Alliance CEO Mish Pony explores a censorship legacy that was the forerunner to Australia’s online safety codes. Read the article via overland.org.au/2025/12/howa...
“If Australian policy-makers genuinely want to safeguard young people, the evidence points elsewhere: comprehensive, non-stigmatising sexuality education that acknowledges pleasure, consent and diversity.”
The Scarlet Alliance’s Mish Pony on Phase 2 of Australia’s online safety codes.
The Scarlet Alliance’s Mish Pony on Phase 2 of Australia’s online safety codes.
Howard and Harradine’s vision for the Internet is finally realised - Overland literary journal
What binds these actors is not simply distaste for pornography, but a conviction that sexuality and identity require moral regulation. Through advisory roles and institutional influence, they're shapi...
overland.org.au
December 8, 2025 at 1:47 AM
“If Australian policy-makers genuinely want to safeguard young people, the evidence points elsewhere: comprehensive, non-stigmatising sexuality education that acknowledges pleasure, consent and diversity.”
The Scarlet Alliance’s Mish Pony on Phase 2 of Australia’s online safety codes.
The Scarlet Alliance’s Mish Pony on Phase 2 of Australia’s online safety codes.
“I was analysing systems of state power at the exact moment one of those systems was destroying my family.”
Two years after his mother was killed by an airstrike in Khan Younis, Hazem Almassry writes about how universities exploit Palestinian expertise.
Two years after his mother was killed by an airstrike in Khan Younis, Hazem Almassry writes about how universities exploit Palestinian expertise.
The profit of distance: how universities exploit Palestinian expertise - Overland literary journal
My mother was killed on 5 December 2023 in Khan Younis. An airstrike hit our home around 3 pm. The building collapsed. I learned she was dead while I was in Taiwan, working on research about how polit...
overland.org.au
December 5, 2025 at 1:40 AM
“I was analysing systems of state power at the exact moment one of those systems was destroying my family.”
Two years after his mother was killed by an airstrike in Khan Younis, Hazem Almassry writes about how universities exploit Palestinian expertise.
Two years after his mother was killed by an airstrike in Khan Younis, Hazem Almassry writes about how universities exploit Palestinian expertise.
“Planning is political, especially in a country where it has been used to facilitate settler frames of land commodification and exclusion.”
An in-depth history by Rachel Gallagher of urban planning as a colonial tool.
An in-depth history by Rachel Gallagher of urban planning as a colonial tool.
Settling the city: urban planning as a vector of settler colonialism - Overland literary journal
The key tools of urban planning, like master planning, zoning and state acquisition of land, are derivatives of the state’s perceived need for centralised control. Urban planning assumes there is a bl...
overland.org.au
December 3, 2025 at 1:02 AM
“Planning is political, especially in a country where it has been used to facilitate settler frames of land commodification and exclusion.”
An in-depth history by Rachel Gallagher of urban planning as a colonial tool.
An in-depth history by Rachel Gallagher of urban planning as a colonial tool.
Reposted by Overland Journal
A typically incisive piece by Jonno Revanche in Overland on bad essays, Substack writing, and the general state that we’re in overland.org.au/2025/12/with...
With respect to the poor essay - Overland literary journal
Style is now a feature that we surrender to a digital pattern recognition machine, which attempts to replicate our own but often falls short, feeling convincing enough but too superficial in its notic...
overland.org.au
December 1, 2025 at 3:48 AM
A typically incisive piece by Jonno Revanche in Overland on bad essays, Substack writing, and the general state that we’re in overland.org.au/2025/12/with...