Published in Overland Issue 209 Summer 2012 · Writing editorial Jeff Sparrow Overland is fundamentally committed to emerging writers. This edition features the winning entries from the Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize, the richest and most prestigious competition of its kind in Australia. They are introduced by Jennifer Mills, Overland’s incoming fiction editor, in a judge’s report offering a snapshot of the huge quantity of writing that was assessed. We are very pleased to publish the three successful stories in an issue in which many of the essays ask hard questions about the theory and practice of writing itself. We rarely theme Overland these days, for the literary journal is a form that thrives on diversity, even eclecticism. But this edition emerged naturally, since so many contributors seemed to grappling with the same problems. What does it mean to be an author in Australia? Can I make a living from my work? Is writing merely a private hobby, a practice akin to stamp collecting? If not, what role does it play in Australian society? Should writing involve a politics – and, if so, how? Writing is always difficult, particular so in turbulent economic times, in a small country like Australia. But that very difficulty makes confronting broader questions all the more important. Overland 209 invites both new and established writers (and, for that matter, readers) to join an ongoing conversation about writing and its role. Jeff Sparrow Jeff Sparrow is a Walkley Award-winning writer, broadcaster and former editor of Overland. More by Jeff Sparrow › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 5 February 202417 February 2024 · Writing Here and now: our call for justice and liberation Tzedek Collective Our community is one of action and activism, informed by histories and imaginings of Jewish and other resistance. In our anticolonial work, we are explicitly anti-Zionist and work for a free Palestine. We take on this work not to centre or salvage Judaism and Jewishness, but to oppose settler colonialism in all its forms, and to acknowledge the specific and necessary role of Jewish anti-Zionists in opposing violence done in our names. 3 26 May 20238 June 2023 · Writing garramilla/Darwin Lulu Houdini We sit in East Point Reserve and look at how the gidjaas, green ants, make globe-like homes out of the leaves — connected edges with fibrous tissue that I later learn is faithful silk. Safe inside. Why isn’t it safe outside? I pick up the plastic around this circular lake cause this is the way […]