Progressive writing since 1954
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I take my body to the movies. I pay for a seat in the back row and feed her popcorn while the opening credits roll. It’s a thriller, one of those recent ones made to look old. I guess at who the killer will turn out to be. My body clenches when the virgin is stabbed in the back, her body collapsing into the velvety drapes of the hotel lobby. The post Almost sex appeared first on Overland literary…
Eutastrophe is an alternative to the jack-boot and to the cruelty of fascism. It is people of goodwill, agreeing to co-operate, despite that all divides us.It is not the world that most anti-fascists would create. It is a society of stout property-owners projected both into the indefinite past and into the indefinite future. But it is a world imagined as an act of taking sides against fascism —…
We have built our cities on the quiet delusion that a turning tap is an infinite resource. We plant green lawns around our houses and water public parks in the middle of summer. As long as the water flows when they turn on the tap, people rarely think about where it comes from. But the reality is, a city is only as permanent as the natural water source it depends on. The post Perth’s reservoirs…
G-d, Sleep, and Chaos — Alan Fyfe's debut poetry collection — begins with something. The something calls out. But then the something doesn’t tell. The something remembers something: Egypt. Then the something feels around for something in a body of water, for “angel’s teeth in the sand at the bottom” (in “Eulogy for Hasan”). The something is grief ... The post Waiting for the light to hit it just…
At its core, Crip Stories is a book that says calmly and quietly, “We are here”. It offers insights into disability discrimination in education, employment and the healthcare system, as well as the complexities of family, the intersections of identity, and so much more. It’s an offering to the disability community, to allies, and to those who haven’t thought about disability much at all. The post…
When the racist motive of a crime is not named, part of the experience disappears from the official story. The attack left me anxious. I now think before wearing a keffiyeh in public, not only because I fear another attack, but because I am no longer certain the justice system would recognise why I had been attacked. The post Australia has recognised Islamophobia. But will it provide equal…
A poem by Shen Haobo, translated from the Chinese by Liang Yujing The post 他不吃螃蟹 / He doesn’t eat crabs appeared first on Overland literary journal .
“The only lottery I’ve ever won” quips Rowan Cahill about turning twenty — the date of his birthday being his number in the “lottery of death” or “blood lottery” run by the Australian government for conscription for the Vietnam War in 1965. The post Cold War rebel: how the government created its anti-war activists appeared first on Overland literary journal .
Effective 1 July 2026, Overland is pleased to announce an increase in contributor rates across all categories, reflecting our ongoing commitment to paying writers and artists fairly for their work. […] The post Overland is increasing contributor rates appeared first on Overland literary journal .
The violence of Islamophobia diminishes the ability of Muslims, as Muslims, to narrate themselves and project themselves into a future. But to insist on complexity is not to evade responsibility. It is to refuse the racial grammar through which abandonment is made to look like justice, and care like complicity. The post After the “ISIS bride”: Islamophobia and the limits of care appeared first on…
