Overland Journal
@overlandjournal.bsky.social
Overland Journal – radical Australian literature and culture since 1954
overland.org.au
overland.org.au
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:
Reposted by Overland Journal
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...
“Perhaps the poor essay still reveals, through its derivative gestures, the outline of the writer it tried to replace.”
Jonno Revanche on the present of a form, and what might still amount to real writing.
Jonno Revanche on the present of a form, and what might still amount to real writing.
With respect to the poor essay - Overland literary journal
Once, many years ago, I was on a panel discussing something for a new redundant culture publication with a few different writers of my cohort concerning the topic of “Fake News” — a panel which I glad...
overland.org.au
December 1, 2025 at 1:54 AM
“Perhaps the poor essay still reveals, through its derivative gestures, the outline of the writer it tried to replace.”
Jonno Revanche on the present of a form, and what might still amount to real writing.
Jonno Revanche on the present of a form, and what might still amount to real writing.
“Time is non-existent. Intangible and unknowable. We’ve been driving for days… maybe months, impossible to tell.”
Our latest #fridayfiction is THE ROAD TRIP, a new story by Jaslyn Angus.
Our latest #fridayfiction is THE ROAD TRIP, a new story by Jaslyn Angus.
The road trip - Overland literary journal
The dust picks up in a cloud, coats the backseat window in dirty ochre and veils the road behind. We pick up speed. Particles fall like rain around us and I think I can make out the hazy image of a fa...
overland.org.au
November 28, 2025 at 2:00 AM
“Time is non-existent. Intangible and unknowable. We’ve been driving for days… maybe months, impossible to tell.”
Our latest #fridayfiction is THE ROAD TRIP, a new story by Jaslyn Angus.
Our latest #fridayfiction is THE ROAD TRIP, a new story by Jaslyn Angus.
“We stand at a precipice where hunger and spectacle are colliding in full view — where the performance of plenty becomes more valued than the provision of sustenance.”
Angelique Minas on the Versailles-era turn in grocery.
Angelique Minas on the Versailles-era turn in grocery.
Let them eat content: when ordinary staples become signifiers of wealth - Overland literary journal
We stand at a precipice where hunger and spectacle are colliding in full view — where the performance of plenty becomes more valued than the provision of sustenance, where food functions more as an im...
overland.org.au
November 26, 2025 at 1:11 AM
“We stand at a precipice where hunger and spectacle are colliding in full view — where the performance of plenty becomes more valued than the provision of sustenance.”
Angelique Minas on the Versailles-era turn in grocery.
Angelique Minas on the Versailles-era turn in grocery.
“That old one — the working class as one dumb mass — is nothing but another bourgeois cliché. We are not simpletons, we’re just exploited.”
From a polemic by Sergio Chesán on literature and class, translated for us by Roy Duffield.
From a polemic by Sergio Chesán on literature and class, translated for us by Roy Duffield.
Literature, no place for the poor - Overland literary journal
That old one — the working class as one dumb mass — is nothing but another bourgeois cliché. We are not simpletons, we’re just exploited.
overland.org.au
November 25, 2025 at 1:15 AM
“That old one — the working class as one dumb mass — is nothing but another bourgeois cliché. We are not simpletons, we’re just exploited.”
From a polemic by Sergio Chesán on literature and class, translated for us by Roy Duffield.
From a polemic by Sergio Chesán on literature and class, translated for us by Roy Duffield.
By making the monster human and the humans monstrous, del Toro draws us back to the radical empathy of Shelley’s novel, but also into familiar ableist horror tropes.”
Kosa Monteith on maternity, monstrosity and disability in the new FRANKENSTEIN.
Kosa Monteith on maternity, monstrosity and disability in the new FRANKENSTEIN.
Frankenstein was a “bad” mother: maternity, monstrosity and disability - Overland literary journal
By making the monster human and the humans monstrous, del Toro draws us back to the radical empathy of Shelley’s novel, but into familiar ableist horror tropes. Empathetic, but not empowering. He’s a ...
overland.org.au
November 24, 2025 at 1:37 AM
By making the monster human and the humans monstrous, del Toro draws us back to the radical empathy of Shelley’s novel, but also into familiar ableist horror tropes.”
Kosa Monteith on maternity, monstrosity and disability in the new FRANKENSTEIN.
Kosa Monteith on maternity, monstrosity and disability in the new FRANKENSTEIN.
“She learned to use ink
to slowly cover
her reflection in the water,
hiding it from every eye,
until her skin
grew a waterproof shell.”
From HER NAME IS A RIVER, our latest #Fridaypoem by Tangqing Zhang.
overland.org.au/2025/11/her-...
to slowly cover
her reflection in the water,
hiding it from every eye,
until her skin
grew a waterproof shell.”
From HER NAME IS A RIVER, our latest #Fridaypoem by Tangqing Zhang.
overland.org.au/2025/11/her-...
Her name is a river - Overland literary journal
They measured her body / with iron chains, / and gave her a new name— / as if planting a eucalyptus / into a church vase, / uprooting the old one completely.
overland.org.au
November 21, 2025 at 1:39 AM
“She learned to use ink
to slowly cover
her reflection in the water,
hiding it from every eye,
until her skin
grew a waterproof shell.”
From HER NAME IS A RIVER, our latest #Fridaypoem by Tangqing Zhang.
overland.org.au/2025/11/her-...
to slowly cover
her reflection in the water,
hiding it from every eye,
until her skin
grew a waterproof shell.”
From HER NAME IS A RIVER, our latest #Fridaypoem by Tangqing Zhang.
overland.org.au/2025/11/her-...
“During the late months of 2024, it was becoming readily clear to some of us that Gaza existed on two incommensurable planes: one which was transmitted in Arabic and the other in English.”
An introduction to OF WEAPONS AND WORDS, and to the vital task of translating militant writings on Palestine.
An introduction to OF WEAPONS AND WORDS, and to the vital task of translating militant writings on Palestine.
To fight against the annihilation of thought: an introduction to Of Weapons and Words - Overland literary journal
Across Palestine and beyond, militant intellectuals continue to study the ongoing catastrophe despite Israel’s best efforts. This study and critical analysis has nothing to do with scholasticism. It r...
overland.org.au
November 19, 2025 at 2:01 AM
“During the late months of 2024, it was becoming readily clear to some of us that Gaza existed on two incommensurable planes: one which was transmitted in Arabic and the other in English.”
An introduction to OF WEAPONS AND WORDS, and to the vital task of translating militant writings on Palestine.
An introduction to OF WEAPONS AND WORDS, and to the vital task of translating militant writings on Palestine.
“Wianamattas’ emus are a testament to the importance of caring for even the ordinary parts of our living world—the parts that we take for granted.”
As part of our series supported by @copower.bsky.social, Andy Mason goes searching for Sydney’s last “wild” emus
As part of our series supported by @copower.bsky.social, Andy Mason goes searching for Sydney’s last “wild” emus
Over the back fence: in search of Sydney’s last “wild” emus - Overland literary journal
Everybody knows there used to be emus all over Western Sydney. It’s called Emu Plains, for flip’s sake.
overland.org.au
November 13, 2025 at 1:41 AM
“Wianamattas’ emus are a testament to the importance of caring for even the ordinary parts of our living world—the parts that we take for granted.”
As part of our series supported by @copower.bsky.social, Andy Mason goes searching for Sydney’s last “wild” emus
As part of our series supported by @copower.bsky.social, Andy Mason goes searching for Sydney’s last “wild” emus
In the final hours of our Subscriberthon, our brilliant co-editors Evelyn and Jonathan have an important message for you. Head to overland.org.au/shop or overland.org.au/donate today.
November 7, 2025 at 6:06 AM
In the final hours of our Subscriberthon, our brilliant co-editors Evelyn and Jonathan have an important message for you. Head to overland.org.au/shop or overland.org.au/donate today.
For the last day of our Subscriberthon we have set aside something *very* special: a gallery of stunning portraits of Palestinian activists by Tia Kasambalis, with an introduction by Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak.
Here’s PORTRAITS OF RESISTANCE.
Here’s PORTRAITS OF RESISTANCE.
Portraits of resistance - Overland literary journal
Tia’s Portraits of Resistance are a radical break from this assault against being a Palestinian settler in Australia. In these drawings we meet Palestinians, young and old, who found themselves holdin...
overland.org.au
November 7, 2025 at 1:14 AM
For the last day of our Subscriberthon we have set aside something *very* special: a gallery of stunning portraits of Palestinian activists by Tia Kasambalis, with an introduction by Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak.
Here’s PORTRAITS OF RESISTANCE.
Here’s PORTRAITS OF RESISTANCE.
LAST CHANCE! We're wrapping things up over here, which means today is your last chance to win BIG. Today's prize pack is looking pretty gorgeous, and don't forget you're still in the running to win either of our major prizes, too! Head to overland.org.au/shop now to enter!
November 7, 2025 at 12:26 AM
LAST CHANCE! We're wrapping things up over here, which means today is your last chance to win BIG. Today's prize pack is looking pretty gorgeous, and don't forget you're still in the running to win either of our major prizes, too! Head to overland.org.au/shop now to enter!
We have put a lot of effort recently in making available the entire archive of OVERLAND’s 70+ year history.
In that spirit, on the penultimate day of Subscriberthon we bring you this previously unpublished interview with historian Humphrey McQueen on state violence and the arming of the police.
In that spirit, on the penultimate day of Subscriberthon we bring you this previously unpublished interview with historian Humphrey McQueen on state violence and the arming of the police.
Back when they armed the police: an interview with Humphrey McQueen - Overland literary journal
In this interview with Rock Chugg, commissioned some twenty years by then-editor Nathan Hollier for a monographic issue that didn't eventuate, Australian historian Humphrey McQueen discusses the armin...
overland.org.au
November 6, 2025 at 1:08 AM
We have put a lot of effort recently in making available the entire archive of OVERLAND’s 70+ year history.
In that spirit, on the penultimate day of Subscriberthon we bring you this previously unpublished interview with historian Humphrey McQueen on state violence and the arming of the police.
In that spirit, on the penultimate day of Subscriberthon we bring you this previously unpublished interview with historian Humphrey McQueen on state violence and the arming of the police.