Blog

In the immediate aftermath of a deeply traumatising event

Travels in American IraqCelebrated Australian journalist John Martinkus has covered conflicts in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the author of A Dirty Little War, Indonesia’s Secret War in Aceh, Quarterly Essay 7: Paradise Betrayed and Travels in American Iraq. In his spare time, he works for SBS Dateline and teaches in the journalism department at the University of Tasmania.

We recently talked to him about his article in the new Overland, ‘Kidnapped in Iraq; attacked in Australia’, which recounts his experiences in Baghdad in 2004, and what transpired when he returned to Australia. ... read more

Written by Editorial team on 31-08-2011, 2 user comments

Beyond the headlines in Israel and Palestine

A neat story for the latest round of bloodshed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories would run something like this: Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli civilians. Eight Israelis were killed, and Israel responded with strikes that killed Palestinians believed to be responsible for the terrorism. A neat story of terrorism and counter-terrorism where Israel defends itself against terrorism. Then responsible commentary on whether Israel has exercised enough restraint in responding to terrorism.

It may be worth delving deeper, to try to gain some actual understanding of the situation and its dynamics. In March this year, a new round of hostilities broke out. Ha’aretz military correspondents Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff reported that the: ... read more

Written by Michael Brull on 29-08-2011, 1 user comment

Jay Rosen: ‘Don’t you think that’s a little strange?’

The text of Jay Rosen’s Big Idea presentation from the MWF is available in full. There’s lots to like in it: his instinctive revulsion at a TV program called Insiders on which journalists interview journalists, his dissection of the ‘cult of saviness’, his argument about the cult of innocence that plays out in ‘he said, she said’ journalism. Here, for instance, is his analysis of a recent (and, as he says, not especially obnoxious) piece on the Labor Party and gay marriage:

The insiders are worried about how their conference is going to “play” in the media. They are trying to make the story come out a certain way. Reporters grant them anonymity so these struggles can be publicized. But if today’s media report about politics is about how the media will be reporting a political event tomorrow, there’s obviously something circular in that. And this is how it begins to make sense to call the journalists “insiders.” Everyone is engaged in the production of media narratives. Journalists and politicians are both “inside” the story making machinery.

... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 28-08-2011, 2 user comments

Launch of Overland 204 at the Melbourne Writers Festival

204 cover-web

27 August 2011 | 2:30pm – 3:30pm | Venue: ACMI The Cube

Launch of Overland 204

Sophie Cunningham does the honours as radical literary journal Overland launches its 204th edition, which features Malalai Joya on Afghanistan and the West, John Martinkus on a kidnapping in Iraq, new writing by emerging female authors and much, much more.

Free, no booking required.

Proudly supported by Victoria University

... read more

Written by Editorial team on 27-08-2011, 1 user comment

205, summer 2011

205 cover-200px copy

ISBN 978-0-9871301-2-9
published 2 December 2011
Mattias Gardell on the Oslo massacre, the politics of Indigenous languages, an extract from Alexis Wright’s forthcoming novel and much more.

... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 26-08-2011, Comments Off

Rebellion in poetry

ghazal games

Ghazal Games
Roger Sedarat
Ohio University Press

Experimenting with traditional poetic form is not a new concept. John Keats wrote his poem ‘On the Sonnet’ warning of the dangers of constraining the ‘muse’ to strict form. Imagist poets like Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell adapted the haiku form to English-language verse. Where there are rules, there are rebels.

But the act of experimenting with form is arguably less about rebellion and more about determining what said form is really capable of achieving by exaggerating its conventions. In hindsight it can be said that most poetry is to some degree a reaction against the poetry that came before it, but that the act of ‘reacting against’ is in itself a kind of homage. Poetry that deliberately sets out to experiment with form is the most transparent kind of poetic homage, validating the traditional form for its potential relevance to contemporary culture. ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 25-08-2011, 3 user comments

Meanland: Shocking encounters with the (virtual) Real

Slavoj Zizek in Liverpool – by Andy MiahIt would be safe to say that, thanks to the acknowledged horrors of cyberspace (see ‘Internet child pornography a growing problem’ or ‘Terrorists Take Recruitment Efforts Online’, for starters), our view of the wonders of the brave new world of the internet is becoming increasingly less sanguine. As the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek observed in an interview seven years ago, the digital world has ‘a radically ambiguous status’: ... read more

Written by Ali Alizadeh on 24-08-2011, 3 user comments

Gender and China Mieville’s ‘Embassytown’

KT author pic highresFiction writer, poet, essayist and literary critic, Kirsten Tranter, grew up in Sydney’s literary atmosphere and studied at the University of Sydney, but it was at New York’s Rutgers University that she completed her PhD in English on Renaissance poetry. Tranter’s first novel, The Legacy, was listed for the Miles Franklin in 2010. Her second novel, A Common Loss, is due to appear in January 2012. Today she chats with us about her essay ‘Refiguring fiction: Gender and China Miéville’s Embassytown’, featured in Overland 204. ... read more

Written by Clare Strahan on 23-08-2011, 2 user comments

On being an editorial intern

Well, the fresh-faced (okay, I’m 46 but heck) intern that rocked up to the Overland office way back in January of this year has done her dues and the internship is over; so even though I’m staying involved, I thought I’d take a little space to reflect on my observations and share my intern widsomosity*.

1. If travelling by train(s), always wear a scarf because Southern Cross station is freezing, even in February.
2. It’s a very long way from Warburton to Footscray, though apparently they are both in the same state (ie: Victoria).
3. If you decide to drive from Warburton to Footscray, make sure you have the relevant pages of your Melway. Perhaps it’s time for a GPS.
4. If you get excited about the project to interview writers from the magazine, do not let your enthusiasm blind you to the fact that you have no budget or experience and access only to rudimentary and limited technology.
5. On second thoughts: carry on.

... read more

Written by Clare Strahan on 22-08-2011, 16 user comments

Maliciousness in memes

BOGAN (Wikipedia): The term bogan is Australian slang, usually pejorative or self-deprecating, for an individual who is recognised to be from a lower class background or someone whose limited education, speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour exemplifies such a background.

city-bans-ed-hardyAs the UK riots unfolded, commentary in both the mainstream media and on the Left highlighted how many ‘otherwise progressive’ people lacked a basic understanding of the lives of working class people. Moreover, how little insight they had in to their own ability to access other modes of political voice and dissent. Given the abject failure on the part of the traditional party of social democracy to represent the interests of the working class in Britain, and how desperately excluded and outside the political system many working class people feel, how can we be surprised at an outcome like the UK riots. ... read more

Written by Elizabeth Humphrys on 19-08-2011, 9 user comments

Sophie Cunningham’s ‘Melbourne’

MelbourneMelbourne writer, editor and publisher, Sophie Cunningham, is the author of several novels: Geography and Bird, and currently working on a third. Editor and publisher of numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction, she has worked for such notables as McPhee Gribble, Penguin and Allen & Unwin as well as taking the helm as editor of Meanjin (2008-2010). She writes on such diverse topics as travel, cultural analysis, Buddhism and television (not to mention literature) but her latest adventure is Melbourne, commissioned by Newsouth as part of a series on Australia's capital cities. ... read more

Written by Clare Strahan on 18-08-2011, No comments

Hope to see you there!

204 coverThis is an open invitation to the launch of Overland 204, at the Melbourne Writers Festival at 2.30 pm on Saturday 27 August.

Overland 204 is a special, extended edition. It contains Malalai Joya’s thoughts on why Australia must get out of Afghanistan, and John Martinkus’ account of being kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq and then denounced by shock jocks for surviving. Joya is also delivering a keynote at the MWF; she and Martinkus are speaking together on a special panel on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. ... read more

Written by Editorial team on 17-08-2011, 2 user comments

The BDS and Victoria Police

Republished with permission from Electronic Intifada and Kim Bullimore.

Max Brenner protest

In the largest show of support for the Palestinian-initiated boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign so far in Australia, more than 350 persons marched on 29 July in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle – and in opposition to an attempt by Victorian Police to criminalise Palestine solidarity activism in Melbourne. ... read more

Written by Editorial team on 16-08-2011, 6 user comments

Hari Kunzru: These riots reveal some unpalatable home truths

Hari Kunzru is the author of the novels Gods without Men and The Impressionist. He lives in Hackney, east London. He has kindly given permission to republish his Guardian article on the recent riots.

Property on fire, London

There's nothing like fear and hatred to sharpen the senses. The riots have shown Britain some unpalatable truths about itself, making it impossible to hold on to a certain Whiggish story about social progress which, in the teeth of the evidence, we have persisted in telling about ourselves. ... read more

Written by Editorial team on 15-08-2011, 6 user comments

Malalai Joya in Australia

The presence of Australian troops is only beneficial for the bunch of warlords and criminals ruling Afghanistan. The Afghan people face dire conditions as the US and their allies have massacred innocent women, children and men – and are continuing so. Since 2001, tens of thousands civilians have been killed by the blind bombardments of the US and their allies, which includes Australia as well. […] Therefore, the Australian people need to demand that their government stop supporting such a treacherous regime and instead support the democratic forces of Afghanistan who are struggling under extreme conditions to bring peace, independence, democracy, freedom, and women’s rights. Furthermore, they should ask the Australian government to withdraw its troops because their presence is only making the situation worse.

... read more

Written by Editorial team on 15-08-2011, No comments