Overland literary journal

back in its rightful home…

Written by Karen Pickering on 17-12-2009, No comments

Subscriberthon prize announcement – the first of many…

The first prize we would like to announce was not one that we flagged during the event. It was not donated by any of our sponsors, and we're not sure it's worth anything like dollars. It's a selection of 12 issues of Overland starting with Number Eight Spring 1956, through to our fiftieth anniversary edition 174. In there, we added 36 featuring Dorothy Hewett and Bruce Dawe; 50/51 with the concrete poetry cover; 100 featuring Patrick White, David Malouf, Judith Wright, Manning Clark, Barry Jones et al; 112 commemorating and celebrating founding editor Stephen Murray-Smith; 127 on 100 Years of the ALP 144 Black Writing featuring Samuel Wagan Watson and Mudrooroo; 147 Ian Syson's first issue as editor 'Never Mind the Ballads'; 150 containing a special anniversary reprint of Overland Number One; 163 with the incredible 'Indigenocide and the Massacre of Aboriginal History' and Mark Davis's second Overland Lecture 'Towards Cultural Renewal'; 169 tribute to Dorothy Hewett and our first Bob Ellis Overland Lecture 'The Age of Spin'. We hope that the winner will like it very much, because she was the very first to sign up during Subscriberthon.  Congratulations to Emilie Collyer.

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 17-12-2009, No comments

Questionnaire

by A. S. Patric

Are we more disconnected?

Are we more superficial?

Does the internet cripple the creative life?

Are we more distracted?

Debased and disillusioned?

Do we abandon a spiritual centre for a cyber stratosphere?

Or is it merely two centimetres of distraction?

Are we ourselves filtered through the thoughts of others?

Are we distillations of the failures and successes of our parents, or perhaps, just our social networks?

How much of myself is originated solely from the private recesses of the singularity that is my ego?

How much of me is already historical, global, communal, whether I want it or not?

Where is all this going?

Where is all this happening?

Is there some point of culmination where consciousness experiences itself as a collective phenomenon? ... read more

Written by Alec Patric on 16-12-2009, 10 user comments

Picaro Press has posted bail for Gil Scott Heron

On this blog we always seem to be so down on publishers (perhaps, and let's be honest about this, it's because we're mostly emerging writers struggling to get things published), that I thought I'd give a shout out to the publisher of my forthcoming poetry collection Gil Scott Heron is on Parole. When I asked Rob ' Is this madness?' after he'd read the first draft of the book (which was at the time intended to be launched as part of a Caribbean Immigration Exhibition being held at the Melbourne Immigration Museum), his answer was: 'Of course it is. But publishing poetry is madness. So let's do it.'

It's not just that an imprint which has published the likes of Judith Rodriguez, Dorothy Porter and David Brooks took a young (can I still claim that now that I have a 3 in front of my numbering?) black she-poet on. It's the fact that my poetry is directly political, that all the patois and the mother fucks remain in the text, that he sent me the first proof bound into a blood red cover, then a few weeks later the second proof arrived with a closed raised fist smack bang in the middle of the red. Rob didn't balk when I asked him to wonkify the title lettering to make the whole thing look like an underground pamphlet. Despite the potential of not even breaking even (let's face it, the book is not exactly likely to be on the pressie list for Mum), Picaro Press is risking it. So you see, some publishers are good guys after all. ... read more

Written by Maxine Clarke on 15-12-2009, 7 user comments

goolwa or bust

The Australian Poetry Centre has a callout up for proposals for the Salt on the Tongue festival in Goolwa in April 2010. I heard great things about their 2008 festival in Castlemaine, so i'm definitely programming myself in for this one. Get your ideas in ASAP!

Lurking philanthropists, take note: there's also a polite request for donations. the 2009 festival had to be cancelled because feddo funding fell through, so the APC relies on you to make this happen.

Written by Jennifer Mills on 14-12-2009, 1 user comment

Waiting for the Shit to Burn

by Mark William Jackson

In Copenhagen our great leaders

stand and scream to learn,

while I’m just kicking back

waiting for the shit to burn.

Economic crisis hits dope deals

costs more than most can earn,

so I’m just smoking crack

waiting for the shit to burn.

Democracy spreads like cancer

just wait till it’s your turn,

freedom lovers drinking Jack

waiting for the shit to burn.

In the days of tribulation

judgment has been adjourned,

God’s just kicking back

waiting for the shit to burn.

Written by Alec Patric on 12-12-2009, No comments

‘I assure you, demons take it quite seriously’

Via Andrew Sullivan, here's an ab fab warning about the Satanic threat posed by Pokemon. The best moment comes at about 1.43, when our speaker wails: 'Your children need to know that there's a Devil and he hates them and he wants to ruin their life.' At that point, the screen displays a cute pink fellow named Jigglypuff. Yes, kids: there is a Devil and he's called ...  Jigglypuff.

... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 10-12-2009, 4 user comments

Contemplation (a poem)

Contemplation of
creamy moussaka,
or fish and chips.

Contemplation of
another one child
with a male womb.

Contemplation of
damned souls Orthodox,
blessed in a church.

Contemplation of
Snoop Doggy Dog hum
regulating.

Contemplation, contemplation,
contemplation of numbness
dancing in darkness
with strobes of
lights and
blindness.

Contemplation of fifty scotches
straight when it’s too late
for a date and you really
should have ate
contemplation.

Contemplation of her /
of scissors to her long
perfect strands
or maybe her
throat              contemplation

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 9-12-2009, 1 user comment

so that was the subscriberthon that was

The inaugural Overland subscriberthon has now come and gone. After a somewhat shaky start, it proved a remarkable success, showcasing the snazzy new site and pulling in the subs. Thanks to everyone who subscribed or renewed; thanks, too, to all the sponsors, the bloggers, the commenters and everyone here at Overland HQ. Prizes will be drawn and announced over the next week, so stay tuned.

Of course, even without subscriberthon, it’s always a good time to become a member of the Overland community. Most of the essays from the current edition are now online – click here to read Darshana Jayemanne on the art of video gaming, Lizzie O’Shea on opera in the occupied territories and Liz Thompson & Ben Rosenzweig on the market in education. The fiction, poetry and reviews will be up soon. Again, if you like what you see, don’t feel shy about getting that credit card out. ... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 9-12-2009, No comments