Overland Journal

Housing choices — but for whom? On the rise of community housing organisations - Overland literary journal As community housing organisations continue to expand into becoming Australia’s largest landlords, critical questions emerge about the fitness of these institutions to provide secure, rights-based hou...

"Ultimately, what is at stake in the rise of community housing organisations isn’t just housing access — it’s the political and moral landscape of dwelling itself."

David Kelly on the replication of colonial governance under the guise of supplying "housing choices".

Sing a rainbow, too: Keio Yoshida’s queer legal dream - Overland literary journal It’s into this uncertain moment that the UK-based international human rights lawyer Keio Yoshida’s optimistic Pride and Prejudices: queer lives and the law saw its release. The book’s core argument is...

For our ongoing series of critical essays supported by @copyright.com.au, Sam Elkin reviews Keio Yoshida’s new book PRIDE AND PREJUDICES. overland.org.au/2025/08/sing...

Bryan Johnson vs the death defenders - Overland literary journal When Johnson claims that “death defenders” are “helpless”, he unwittingly gets to the point. The majority of the world does not have the cash to pay a team of doctors so that they may live. If you wan...

“Most likely, Johnson will live a much longer life than most people. But probably not because of his laser-focus on his lifestyle. Rather, because he is wealthy.”

Erin Stewart on Bryan Johnson and the latest tantrums of tech transhumanism.

Open letter against the adoption of the Australian Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism's Plan - Overland literary journal We, the undersigned university researchers, educators, students and professional staff, call on the Australian Government to reject the unprecedented attack on academic freedom and the autonomy of uni...

Open letter against the adoption of the Australian Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism’s Plan: Academics against racism overland.org.au/2025/07/open...

Open letter against the adoption of the Australian Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism's Plan - Overland literary journal We, the undersigned university researchers, educators, students and professional staff, call on the Australian Government to reject the unprecedented attack on academic freedom and the autonomy of uni...

The measures called for in this report are an extraordinary attempt to place higher education under the control of a political lobby.

Beyond the infographic: online neurodiversity in late capitalism - Overland literary journal Autistic/ADHD people and their loved ones who enthusiastically endorse these paradigms are reacting to an impoverished system: in grasping at a deeper understanding of themselves, they are trying to m...

Very proud to have co-authored another sure to be unpopular Autism/ADHD banger with my comrade Dr Ali, and even prouder that it's in @overlandjournal.bsky.social

Epigrams against wealth - Overland literary journal Each righteous description / and each derivation / of sun possession / to own a brand-name, / patterning of time / on skin. Wealth / is obscene, and poems / are no safe-zones / from the brutality / of...

“... Wealth
is obscene, and poems
are no safe-zones
from the brutality
of clichés.”

We’re delighted to bring you a new, long illustrated poem by John Kinsella, “Epigrams against wealth”.

Beyond the infographic: online neurodiversity in late capitalism - Overland literary journal Autistic/ADHD people and their loved ones who enthusiastically endorse these paradigms are reacting to an impoverished system: in grasping at a deeper understanding of themselves, they are trying to m...

“It is nearly impossible to completely separate Autism from its clinical context. Yet the rise in self-identification with rigid lists of behaviours and “symptoms” is at odds with the utopian intentions of the neurodiversity movement.”

Clem Bastow and Ali Schnabel on online neurodiversity

Kumanjayi Walker’s inquest must signal a turning point for ending the status quo of police investigating police - Overland literary journal The path forward is clear and this moment must be a reckoning for holding police to account. Governments must end the status quo of the police investigating themselves and dodging accountability for t...

“There can be no true justice and accountability while police are permitted to investigate the actions of their colleagues in relation to complaints and deaths in police custody.”

Maggie Munn and Monique Hurley on the aftermath of the Kumanjayi Walker inquest.

Inner ants - Overland literary journal The shower tap squeaks as Ray finally turns it off. I sit, cross armed on the couch. Pippa is sprawled across the floorboards in a patch of sunlight, oblivious to the impending volcanic eruption.

“My hand hovers above the dog lead. I close my eyes. Pippa is _his_ dog. I can’t steal his dog.”

Our latest #fridayfiction is INNER ANTS, by Caitlin Mahony.

The People's Inquiry shines a light on Palestine repression at Australian universities - Overland literary journal Our universities are employing police-state tactics to discipline and punish students and staff for their opposition to the Gaza genocide. The fact that this censorship is regularly couched in the lan...

“Our universities are employing police-state tactics to discipline and punish students and staff for their opposition to the Gaza genocide.”

James McVicar on the findings of the People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine, which is holding public hearings this week.

The Painters and Dockers are back, they’re (mostly) Filipinos, and they’re fucking killing it - Overland literary journal Together as a group, the workers joined the Union and pulled the trigger on negotiations. What followed was a beautiful demonstration of trust and courage in motion. Every time the managers threw a cr...

“The vote was called, the hands went up. Strike action it was.”

Union organiser Shane Reside on the collective agreement won by Painters & Dockers working on Garden Island, and what it means for the rights of workers and migrants.

Poetry, because our lives depend on it: Hasib Hourani’s rock flight - Overland literary journal >rock flight urges its reader to turn the object of the poem into another kind of tool in which a poem is not just a poem but an action. And an action is part of an arc that will one day allow us to w...

“ROCK FLIGHT urges its reader to turn the object of the poem into another kind of tool in which a poem is not just a poem but an action.”

Micaela Sahhar’s review of Hasib Hourani’s debut poem is also a meditation on liberation and resistance.

Off  - Overland literary journal Christa has gone off me, and it’s all I try not to think about—packing angles of chopped watermelon into tupperware, filling our drink bottles, walking with Lila towards the park.

The other runner up for the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize 2024 is “Off” by Jo Langdon. We hope you enjoy it.

Harvard Estate is - Overland literary journal Whispers of Ratna’s death on the morning of 8 December 1941 spreads throughout Harvard Estate. Policemen witnessing the lifting of her body out of the well are careful to side-step an agitated cobra i...

Today we're very pleased to bring you the first runner-up story in the latest Neilma Sidney Prize. It's the beautiful “Harvard Estate is” by Aneeta Sundararaj.

Humanising the text: Walter Benjamin and machine translation - Overland literary journal I realised Benjamin wasn’t just talking about language and culture — he was also talking about me, about my process of understanding a text in a foreign language, and about the seemingly inexorable dr...

“What greater challenge could there be than to translate non-human into human, to breathe fresh vitality into a desiccated husk of information?”

John Jamieson on Walter Benjamin, storytelling and the disembodied language of AI.

Late night shopping? - Overland literary journal Red is so colour coded. / Ohno second. Ignore all previous / instructions and dear first name / so dear. Concessions imbricate. / The collective noun for landlord is / a major party.

“The collective noun for landlord is
a major party”

Our latest Friday poem — the first one selected by our new poetry editor Elena Gomez — is “Late night shopping?” by Dan Hogan.

Whose academic freedom? Whose safety? - Overland literary journal Before anything further was said, I could guess the nature of the complaint and pinpoint the offending teaching material to which it referred. Earlier in the year, in April, I delivered a lecture enti...

“Before anything further was said, I could guess the nature of the complaint and pinpoint the offending teaching material to which it referred.”

A case study on academic censorship by Zain Swaleh

Rebranding repression: the University of Melbourne’s elite capture of antiracism - Overland literary journal Our current climate of political repression at the University of Melbourne reinforces why it is imperative that we continue to build autonomous intellectual homes that are grounded in Indigenous sover...

Shillan Shebly, Natalie Ironfield and Elizabeth Strakosch write about the policing of Palestine solidarity and the intensifying climate of political repression at the University of Melbourne, all “operating in the name of ‘antiracism’.”

A democratic way forward for the CFMEU - Overland literary journal As the one-year anniversary of administration approaches, this is the perfect moment for the rank-and-file members of the CFMEU to assess the way forward. The removed persons list should be torn up im...

“Ensuring the way forward for the CFMEU involves more rank-and-file participation, more democracy and more transparency.”

An essay by Sarah Missen beautifully illustrated by our Sam Wallman.

Those to whom evil is done - Overland literary journal What we need now is not more weapons or false neutrality. We need a reckoning. And we need imagination: a vision of coexistence built on equality, not exclusion. The idea that one people must disappea...

“As a Muslim, I am taught that to oppress another is to dishonour the divine. That justice is a sacred trust. And that peace without dignity is a false peace.”

An essay on Gaza by poet Yahia Lababidi.
overland.org.au/2025/06/thos...

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Gazan stories: Palestinian resistance to the reduction to bare life - Overland literary journal Palestinians are quite capable of photographing themselves, employing resources to represent and narrate not only their circumstances, but how they creatively engage their relationships to their circu...

“Neither numbers nor abject subjects of violence, Palestinians continue to disturb and challenge the Israeli onslaught by resisting their reduction to bare life.”

Norman Saadi Nikro on celebration and creativity as forms of defiance.

Bardo - Overland literary journal When I turn, the angle of my sitting gives a perfect view into the kitchen. I see a man, maybe the manager, slap that girl from the counter. She must have moved when I was not looking. Her earphones a...

“My daughter had shown me videos of drivers with televisions and video games inside their trucks. They personalised their interiors with such thoughtfulness I wonder if they hired designers. I have not.”

Our brand new #fridayfiction is BARDO by Alex Goodfellow.

The case of the missing painting: art, power, and the politics of reviews - Overland literary journal In Australia’s arts sector, two recent reviews have appeared to uphold integrity while quietly protecting the institutions themselves. They tell a revealing story about how federal cultural organisati...

“What is at stake is more than a biennale or an exhibition. It is whether our arts institutions reflect the complexity of the arts, and the courage needed.”

Sarah Schmidt on Ngura Pulka, Khaled Sabsabi and the politics of reviews.

Setting it right? the troubled state of the National Redress Scheme - Overland literary journal The National Redress Scheme is a once-in-history opportunity to face up to the harm that happens to children in all kinds of places, to grapple with what that means for Australian society and Australi...

“Silencing the victim is how abusers operate. Not publicising the Scheme perpetuates the dynamics of abuse.”

JM Trebilor on the troubled state of the National Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse

Climate politics in a time of monsters - Overland literary journal What has been demonstrated in Gaza that certain populations — in this case, Palestinians — possess no rights and have no value in the eyes of the powerful. That lesson has obvious implications in an e...

“We need to think of the future — and that’s why what we do now matters.”

@jeffsparrow1.bsky.social Sparrow on Albanese, Trump, and the magic words that have allowed the political class to reduce the climate crisis to capitalism as usual.

Generously supported by @copower.bsky.social

Incurable or neglected? - Overland literary journal Long Covid/Chronic fatigue solidarity: we demand recognition. De-invisibilise our condition.

Sofia Sabbagh has designed a new poster calling for proper recognition and support for people affected by long Covid and chronic fatigue, and naturally we are delighted to share it with you. overland.org.au/2025/06/incu...

Required viewing: Why is Adolescence being screened in schools? - Overland literary journal No art can be reduced to one reading that justifies calling it necessary — as if it was a pack of rations to take on a forced march — and it’s a fool’s errand to shove a TV show at teenagers in the ho...

“Where does this tendency come from — to treat artists as social workers or carers whose obligation is to guide us towards better decisions?”

Ari Wilson on the campaign to screen ADOLESCENCE in UK schools and the labelling of art products as “required viewing”.

A change of program: classical music performance in a time of war - Overland literary journal It’s often suggested, from different quarters, that Western classical music is losing a certain cultural salience, that it no longer connects to society at large in the ways it has in its prior histor...

“As I listened to Trifonov’s flawless performance, I thought of another Russia to which he might well have given voice, and remained faithful.”

Martin Kovan on the salience of classical music as an art of resistance.
overland.org.au/2025/05/a-ch...